5D00-3318 Cartwright v. Cartwright

State: Florida

Court: Florida Fifth District Court

Docket No: 5D00-3318

Case Date: 09/24/2001

Preview:IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA FIFTH DISTRICT JULY TERM 2001

ULLA CARTWRIGHT, Appellant, v. JEFFREY L. CARTWRIGHT, Appellee. / Opinion Filed September 28, 2001 Appeal from the Circuit Court for Brevard County, Vincent G. Torpy, Jr., Judge. Thomas H. Yardley, Cocoa, for Appellant. Steven Robert Cohen, Frederick, Maryland, for Appellee. GRIFFIN, J. This appeal stems from a dissolution action that ended Ulla Cartwright ["wife"] and Jeffrey Cartwright's ["husband"] twenty-nine year marriage. In 1992, the parties entered into a settlement agreement incorporated into the final judgment of dissolution whereby husband was ordered to pay permanent alimony of $2,285.83 per month. Wife worked little during the marriage and suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. There was also a provision that husband would increase his alimony payment by twenty percent of any salary increase he received each year. At the time of the dissolution in 1992, husband was earning $80,500. Six years later, in October 1998, husband filed a supplemental petition to modify the CASE NO. 5D00-3318

final judgment of dissolution, requesting a decrease in alimony payments, alleging a substantial change in circumstances based on an increase in his living expenses. The case went to trial in February 2000. At trial, husband claimed that his financial condition had slowly deteriorated since 1992. At the time of the settlement agreement, he lived in Binghamton, New York, where he intended to stay until his retirement. He worked for a defense contractor, but lost his job in late 1994. The only suitable position he found was in Washington, D.C. Husband had remarried in 1992. He and his wife settled in Rockville, Maryland. He claims that because he relocated, his cost of living dramatically rose. Also, in 1995, the interest rate on his mortgage and the cost of utilities increased. In 1993, husband was diagnosed with high blood pressure and had to undergo various tests as well as take prescription medicine. He was also misdiagnosed with a tumor in his adrenal gland and was again misdiagnosed in 1996 as having a nodule in his thyroid which involved a series of tests and multiple visits to the hospital for needle biopsies. He claims medical expenses of $200 per month

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