Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Divorce
Before a court can take action that affects either party’s rights in a Florida family law case, each party must be provided with due process. This means they had an opportunity to be heard and notice of the court’s planned action. This was an issue in the case Zinnurov v. Shelegina, 6D2024-1089 (Fla. 6th DCA June 13, 2025).
In this divorce case, the wife filed an unsworn motion, alleging that the husband transferred funds to himself in violation of an administrative order prohibiting the transfer. The motion did not request an interim distribution or a transfer of the funds to her. Several months after the motion was filed the court, without conducting a hearing, requested that the husband file a response, and also ordered that the wife be granted access to half of the funds transferred. The husband appealed.
The appellate court reversed, holding it was a violation of the husband’s due process rights for the trial court to order the transfer without a hearing or evidence. The court held “Based upon the facts of this case, we agree it was error for the trial court to rule the way it did, without any warning, on an unsworn and unsupported motion for contempt. [. . .] To be clear, the trial court was well within its power to order Husband to respond to the motion or to notice Wife’s motion for hearing. What it could not do without any warning, was partially grant an unsworn and unsupported motion for contempt without giving Husband a meaningful opportunity to be heard.”
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