RIVERO V. RIVERO

State: Florida

Court: Florida Southern District Court

Docket No: 3D06-0481.rh

Case Date: 09/05/2007

Plaintiff: RIVERO

Defendant: RIVERO

Preview:Third District Court of Appeal
State of Florida, July Term, A.D. 2007
Opinion filed September 05, 2007. Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing. ________________ No. 3D06-481 Lower Tribunal No. 02-33536 ________________

Maritza Rivero,
Appellant, vs.

Jorge H. Rivero,
Appellee.

An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Eugene J. Fierro, Judge. Rosenthal Rosenthal Rasco, LLC, and Eduardo I. Rasco and Jessica B. Lassman, for appellant. Polo, Yablen & Associates, and Barry A. Yablen, for appellee.

On Motion for Rehearing Before GERSTEN, C.J., and ROTHENBERG, J., and SCHWARTZ, Senior Judge. ROTHENBERG, Judge.

We grant the appellant's motion for rehearing and substitute the following opinion in its stead: In this appeal, the defendant, Maritza Rivero ("Former Wife"), challenges the general magistrate's interpretation of paragraph eight of the parties' Marital Settlement Agreement ("MSA") dated October 30, 2002, which was ratified by the trial court. Because we conclude that the magistrate and the trial judge correctly interpreted and applied both paragraph eight of the MSA and the law, we affirm. The parties were married for approximately thirteen years. During their marriage, the Former Husband worked for Publix Super Markets, Inc. ("Publix") and acquired a pension under an Employee Stock Ownership Plan ("ESOP") through his employment with Publix. The contributions made by Publix to its employees' ESOP accounts were based on each employee's yearly wages. A substantial portion of the money contributed to the ESOP was invested in shares of Publix stock, while the remainder was placed in other investments held by the ESOP. Employees participating in the plan could elect to receive yearly dividends on the shares of stock held in their ESOP accounts. Paragraph eight of the MSA specifies that the parties "have amicably divided all marital property" and provides that "[t]he Husband and Wife shall be entitled to

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