Hall v. Hall
Hall v. Hall
Opinion of the Court
This is an appeal by Milton J. Hall from a final judgment granting a partition of a former “marital” home which was held by
We disagree and reverse based on a holding that the circuit court in the prior proceeding did not adjudicate the competing property interests of the parties in the former “marital” home, and thus the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel cannot bar the appellant’s counterclaim in the instant case. We reach this result because (1) the former proceeding was a marriage dissolution action in which the circuit court found there was no valid marriage between the parties; (2) the circuit court thereafter annulled the subject marriage, restored the parties to the status quo ante and made no property distributions in the case;
The final judgment of partition is reversed and the cause is remanded to the trial court for a new trial in which the appellant’s counterclaim shall be entertained.
Reversed and remanded.
. Although there was no appeal of the prior proceeding, it is doubtful whether the trial court had the actual authority to annul the marriage in absence of proper pleadings specifically requesting an annulment where the only pleadings before it at the time requested marriage dissolution. Sack v. Sack, 184 So.2d 434, 435-36 (Fla.3d DCA 1966); see In re Estate of Hatch-er, 439 So.2d 977, 980 (Fla.3d DCA 1983); Nalley v. Nalley, 406 So.2d 1240, 1242 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981); Defreitas v. Defreitas, 398 So.2d 991, 992 (Fla. 4th DCA 1981); cf. Atkins v. Atkins, 326 So.2d 259 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976) (in proper annulment proceeding, court may distribute property); Dandy v. Dandy, 234 So.2d 728, 730-31 (Fla. 1st DCA 1970) (same).
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.