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709 So. 2d 182

Docket No. 97-699.

Pickett v. Pickett

Wallace James PICKETT, III, Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. Carol Ann PICKETT n/k/a Carol Ann Ault, Appellee/Cross-Appellant.

District Court of Appeal of Florida

Decided April 3, 1998.

Rehearing Denied May 14, 1998.

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 1998-04-03

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“no showing that the husband had the capability while he was in prison to earn the amount imputed to him.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 846 So. 2d 486 - Department of Revenue v. Jackson

Relies on Waugh v. Waugh · Laliberte v. Laliberte · Waugh v. Waugh

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1998-04-03

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently August 2016

5 state decisions

30199820002010decided

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 →

¶1*183 Stephen M. Stone, Orlando, for Appellant/Cross-Appellee.

¶2Gary Shader, Maitland, for Appellee/Cross-Appellant.

¶3COBB, Judge.

¶4The trial court modified the final judgment of dissolution of marriage to, inter alia, reduce the ex-husband's monthly child support obligation from $5,500.00 to $2,378.00. The ex-wife does not assert that some reduction in the ex-husband's child support obligation is unwarranted. Rather, the issues here concern the amount and timing of the reduction. We reverse the modification order in the following respects.

¶5First, the trial court erred in imputing income of $150,000.00 per year to the ex-husband, a radiologist, who was scheduled for sentencing and was in fact sentenced shortly after the modification hearing to 33 months incarceration in federal prison for Medicare fraud. The order of modification contemplates the ex-husband's incarceration. The imputation of income for child support purposes is improper where there is "no showing that the husband had the capability while he was in prison to earn the amount imputed to him." Waugh v. Waugh,679 So.2d 1, 3 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996), appeal after remand,705 So.2d 659 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998). Furthermore, the trial court failed to make a finding of a present ability to pay. Id. See § 61.14(5)(a), Fla. Stat. Given the ex-husband's incarceration, the cause must be remanded for reconsideration under Waugh.

¶6Second, the court erred in failing to make the reduction in child support from $5,500.00 to $2,378.00 retroactive to August 31, 1995, when the ex-husband filed his petition for modification. See Laliberte v. Laliberte,698 So.2d 1291 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997).

¶7We find no abuse of discretion in the award to the ex-wife of lump sum alimony and the denial to her of permanent periodic alimony. These determinations are affirmed.

¶8AFFIRMED IN PART; REVERSED IN PART AND REMANDED.

¶9W. SHARP and ANTOON, JJ., concur.

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