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528 So. 2d 79

Docket No. 87-2435.

Holtan v. Holtan

Richard A. HOLTAN, Appellant, v. Priscilla J. HOLTAN, Appellee.

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 1988-07-06

Relies on 382 So. 2d 1197 - Canakaris v. Canakaris · 432 So. 2d 666 - Campbell v. Campbell · 477 So. 2d 620 - Richards v. Richards

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1988-07-06

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently January 2014

4 state decisions

201988199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1Joseph R. Park and Andrew J. Rodnite, Jr. of Park, Smith, Dayton and Bugg, P.A., Clearwater, for appellant.

¶2Wayne O. Smith, St. Petersburg, for appellee.

¶3FRANK, Judge.

¶4The former husband has appealed from an order modifying the final judgment requiring him to pay permanent periodic alimony and to assume responsibility for all of the wife's future medical expenses.

¶5Based upon the record before us we have concluded that the trial judge did not abuse his discretion in awarding the wife permanent periodic alimony. Canakaris v. Canakaris,382 So.2d 1197 (Fla. 1980). Nowhere does the record affirmatively support the contention that the recipient spouse is ultimately capable of supporting herself. Cf., Contogeorgos v. Contogeorgos,482 So.2d 590 (Fla. 4th DCA 1986); Campbell v. Campbell,432 So.2d 666 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983); Caldwell v. Caldwell,383 So.2d 1115 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980). Unlike the husband, we are unable to glean from the facts before us a portrait of the wife as a capable, young, and potentially self-sufficient wage-earner.

¶6The husband has correctly pointed out, however, that the following provision of the modification order cannot stand:

... the Respondent shall be responsible for payment of all medical bills currently pending and currently anticipated as a result of the impending surgery for the Petitioner. All future medical bills not covered by insurance and medical insurance premiums following said treatment shall be the responsibility of the Respondent.

¶7We concluded in Angle v. Angle,506 So.2d 16 (Fla. 2d DCA 1987), that a similar provision was too "open-ended" and subjected the husband to unlimited financial liability: See also Jones v. Jones,493 So.2d 19 (Fla. 5th DCA 1986); Richards v. Richards,477 So.2d 620 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985). As we directed in Angle, the trial court on remand may require the husband to maintain health insurance, including the payment of premiums and deductible amounts. Furthermore, the court should retain jurisdiction to review future requests by the wife to recover other reasonable and necessary medical expenses not covered by insurance.

¶8In all other aspects the order under review is affirmed.

¶9Affirmed in part; reversed in part; and remanded.

¶10RYDER, A.C.J., and PARKER, J., concur.

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