Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

571 So. 2d 23

Docket No. 89-02673.

Goodman v. Goodman

Robert B. GOODMAN, Appellant, v. Jill A. GOODMAN, Appellee.

This page is marked noindex.

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 1990-07-13

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“a trial court has broad discretion to limit visitation as may be necessary to protect the welfare of the children; however, its decision to impose restrictions on visitation must be supported by some evidence in the record showing that such restrictions are necessary.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Kent v. Burdick

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1990-07-13

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently November 2018

6 state decisions

30199020002010decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1Philip A. McLeod, St. Petersburg, for appellant.

¶2Carl T. Boake of Wallace, Finck & Boake, St. Petersburg, for appellee.

¶3HALL, Judge.

¶4The husband in this dissolution of marriage proceeding challenges the final judgment which limits visitation with his minor children to the wife's state of residence and awards the wife rehabilitative and permanent periodic alimony, child support, and attorney's fees. He raises seven points on appeal. We find merit only in his contention that the trial court abused its discretion in limiting visitation of the parties' oldest child to the wife's state of residence.

¶5The parties have three children: Noah, who is presently ten years old, and twins, Spencer and Jeremy, who are two years old. Following the parties' separation, the wife decided to move with the children to Ohio, where her parents reside.

¶6In the final judgment of dissolution of marriage, the trial court granted the husband liberal access to the minor children; however, it limited visitation with the children to the wife's state of residence.

¶7Although we agree with the trial court that the twins are too young to travel to visit their father in Florida, we believe that the limitation on visitation as to the oldest child is unnecessarily restrictive.

¶8A trial court has broad discretion to limit visitation as may be necessary to protect the welfare of the children; however, its decision to impose restrictions on visitation must be supported by some evidence in the record showing that such restrictions are necessary.

¶9Accordingly, we strike the provision in the final judgment which limits the husband's visitation with the oldest child to the mother's state of residence. The time schedule for visitation set out in the final *24 judgment and all other provisions therein are not affected by this opinion.

¶10Affirmed in part; reversed in part.

¶11SCHEB, A.C.J., and RYDER, J., concur.

/571/so2d/23 · .json · Public domain