Opinion
No. 2D00-1624.
Opinion filed May 16, 2001.
Appeal from the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County; Vivian C. Maye, Judge.
Affirmed.
Jan Soeten, Jr. of Brandon Law Offices of Jan Soeten, Jr., P.A., Brandon, for Appellant.
Eileen H. Griffin and Christine A. Shiver of Griffin Associates, Brandon, for Appellee.
The former husband appeals the denial of his supplemental petition to modify a 1993 final judgment of dissolution to decrease his alimony obligation to his wife of almost twenty-nine years. This was his second petition since 1997 when the then 57- year-old former husband was forced into early retirement from his position as a senior computer systems engineer with GTE. A general master held an evidentiary hearing in July 1997; then the circuit court held a hearing on the former husband's exceptions to the report and recommendation of the general master. In December 1998 the circuit court ratified and adopted the general master's report and recommendation in toto, and denied any modification of alimony. No appeal was taken at that time. The former husband then filed another petition approximately four months later, in March 1999. The only difference in the two petitions was an allegation that since January 1999 he was now employed as a truck driver earning approximately six dollars an hour. The trial court held a hearing on this 1999 petition and again denied his request for a decrease in alimony although it did lower the amount of insurance necessary to secure the alimony obligation. We affirm.
In Lynn v. Allstar Steakhouse Sports Bar, Inc., 736 So.2d 722 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999), we held that absent a transcript of the evidentiary hearing or a statement of the evidence or proceedings pursuant to Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.200(b)(4), an appellate court must affirm when the face of the order on appeal does not reflect error or an abuse of discretion. Based on Lynn, we are compelled to affirm here because of a lack of the transcript of the hearing held on the former husband's 1999 petition. Applegate v. Barnett Bank of Tallahassee, 377 So.2d 1150 (Fla. 1979); Kelley v. Kelley, 779 So.2d 534 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000); Metzler v. Metzler, 779 So.2d 412 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000). Although there is in the appellate record the transcript of the hearing before the general master held in July 1997, those proceedings were finalized by the denial of modification in December 1998, from which no appeal was taken. The appellate record is bare concerning the evidence presented in support of the petition that is the subject of this appeal.
Blue, A.C.J., and Green, J., Concur.
NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING MOTION AND, IF FILED, DETERMINED.