Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Support

What is laches in a Florida family law case? This is a defense asserted by a party that means the other party waited so long to assert his or her claim, that the party asserting laches cannot adequately prepare a defense because, for example, evidence has been lost or is no longer available. This was an issue in the case Phanord v. Phanord, 3D24-0818 (Fla. 3d DCA May 14, 2025).

The parties were divorced in 1992. Approximately 30 years later, the former wife filed a motion for contempt, alleging the former husband had never paid child support as ordered in the final judgment. At a hearing before the general magistrate on the motion, the former husband tried to assert laches, arguing that because the former wife took so long to file her motion, the former husband was unable to obtain proof that he paid in the past 30 years. The general magistrate did not allow the former husband to assert the laches defense, reasoning that the rules of procedure required him to plead laches, which he did not do. After the former husband’s motion to vacate the general magistrate’s recommended order was denied, he appealed.

The appellate court reversed, holding it was a violation of the former husband’s due process rights to deny him the ability to establish a laches defense. The court held “[T]he general magistrate determined that Former Husband had waived laches by not pleading it as an affirmative defense. The general magistrate based this holding on his reading of Florida Family Law Rule of Procedure 12.110(d), which requires that all affirmative defenses be stated in the answer. But a party needs to file an answer and affirmative defenses only in response to a pleading. Fla. Fam. L. R. P. 12.100(c), (d). Former Wife’s contempt motion, filed pursuant to rules 12.100(b) and 12.615(b), is not a pleading. We see no provision in the Family Law Rules that required Former Husband to file an answer, or any written response, to Former Wife’s contempt motion. In our view, traditional notions of due process – along with the express dictates of rule 12.615(b)5 – required the general magistrate both to allow Former Husband to present his laches defense, and then to adjudicate it.”

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