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Hill v. Hill

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District
Oct 20, 1980
388 So. 2d 625 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1980)

Summary

noting that false imprisonment is unlike negligence because it constitutes an intentional tort

Summary of this case from Jibory v. City of Jacksonville

Opinion

No. PP-339.

September 25, 1980. Rehearing Denied October 20, 1980.

Appeal from the Circuit Court, Duval County, Thomas D. Oakley, J.

John Paul Howard, Jacksonville, for appellant.

William L. Coalson, of Greene Greene, P.A., and Eugene Loftin, Jacksonville, for appellees.


We affirm the circuit court's summary final judgment for both appellees in this action filed by the then estranged and now divorced wife against her former husband and his lawyer for malicious prosecution and false imprisonment. The lawyer had probable cause for such action as he took in instituting the wife's competency proceeding, and there is no evidence justifying a charge of false imprisonment arising from the same conduct. We note that the trial court still has under consideration a separate claim of abuse of process, arising from a separate incident.

In sustaining the trial court's judgment that appellee Hill is immune from suit for torts allegedly committed by him during his marriage to appellant, we follow the literal holding of Raisen v. Raisen, 379 So.2d 352 (Fla. 1979), though we recognize the distinguishing factors in this case which would seem to deprive interspousal immunity of the justification expressed for it in Raisen. Here the tort allegedly committed by the husband against the wife, malicious prosecution or false imprisonment, is an intentional tort unlike negligence. It is by nature a poor candidate for collusive claims. Here husband and wife were separated and living apart when the tort allegedly was committed, and they never resumed marital life before the marriage was dissolved. Here the actions complained of were by nature far more disruptive of marital harmony than was the suit complaining of them. Here there is no insurer or other third party standing by to pay any judgment. Accordingly, in applying Raisen notwithstanding those factors, we certify to the Supreme Court that our decision passes on a question of great public importance, namely, the existence of interspousal tort immunity in these circumstances.

AFFIRMED.

BOOTH and SHAW, JJ., concur.


Summaries of

Hill v. Hill

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District
Oct 20, 1980
388 So. 2d 625 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1980)

noting that false imprisonment is unlike negligence because it constitutes an intentional tort

Summary of this case from Jibory v. City of Jacksonville
Case details for

Hill v. Hill

Case Details

Full title:SHEILAH KRISTINE HILL, APPELLANT, v. THOMAS JEFFERSON HILL, AND A.C. SOUD…

Court:District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District

Date published: Oct 20, 1980

Citations

388 So. 2d 625 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1980)

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