Dolan v. Dolan
Florida District Court of Appeal
81 So. 3d 558 (2012)
- Written by Liz Nakamura, JD
Facts
Robert Dolan (plaintiff) and Kim Dolan (defendant) were divorced. In March 2009, Robert filed a petition to modify his child-support obligations under the final divorce judgment. In September 2009, Kim filed a motion to dismiss Robert’s modification petition for failure to state a claim. Kim did not challenge either the sufficiency of the notice she received or the propriety of the service-of-process. The trial court denied Kim’s motion to dismiss. Then, in September 2010, Kim filed a second motion to dismiss, in which she argued for the first time that Robert’s petition should be dismissed because Robert failed to properly serve Kim with the modification petition. The trial court denied Kim’s second motion to dismiss. After a hearing, the trial court gave Robert five days to properly serve his modification petition on Kim. Despite multiple attempts, Robert was unable to serve Kim within the five-day deadline. After Robert failed to serve Kim by the deadline, the court dismissed Robert’s modification petition with prejudice. Robert appealed, arguing that Kim waived her right to object to the improper service-of-process because she failed to raise a timely objection.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Suarez, J.)
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