November 2006
FLORIDA
Divorce makes mom fugitive, torn from her kids
By Jane Musgrave, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
11-13-06 --
Merry Morris is on the lam.
All because, she claims, she wanted to spend more time with
her children. . . . If she returns to Palm Beach County or
gets pulled over for speeding in whatever city she now calls
home, the 52-year-old is likely to be slapped in cuffs and
thrown in jail. She'll stay behind bars until she comes up
with $1.8 million to pay her ex-husband for challenging the
visitation agreement that was part of the suburban Boca
Raton couple's 2001 divorce. . . . That is the simple
explanation for Morris' plight. . . . But like many divorces
in which lots of money, plenty of ego and years of acrimony
are involved, there's nothing simple about the case that
began innocuously enough as Leland Morris vs. Merry
Morris. . . . The case now takes up 14 bulging file
folders that cover more than a yard of shelf space in the
Palm County Clerk of Courts Office. It involves money
secreted in offshore accounts. It has spawned three other
lawsuits. It has been appealed all the way to the Florida
Supreme Court. Federal judges, including two justices of the
U.S. Supreme Court, have been asked to weigh in as well. . .
. And its journey through the judicial system isn't over.
Yet another appeal is pending in the federal 11th District
Court of Appeals in Atlanta. . . . The couple's explanations
for why their divorce spun so out of control are typical of
those who have spent years brawling in court. . . . He says:
She's a money-grubbing witch. . . . She says: He's a
spiteful control freak who must win at all costs. . . . But
there's an inescapable irony in the Morris' tale: At the
root of their legal wrangling is a provision in their
post-nuptial agreement, a provision that was designed to let
the two make a clean break and move on with their lives. . .
. A provision that some say allows the parent with the most
money to win control of their children's lives.
Mother Challenges Florida Family Court Policy That Punishes
Parents for Seeking to Enforce Child Visitation and Then
Denies Appellate Review of the Punishment
Floridafamilycourt.Com
Press Release
5-06 --
WASHINGTON
D.C.
- Merry Morris is a fugitive from justice and has not seen her
minor children in over two years. Her present plight began
when she petitioned the Florida Family Court to: (i) enforce
the visitation provisions of her final judgment of divorce
which she alleged her former husband was violating and (ii)
clarify ambiguous provisions of that final judgment of
divorce.
After a
trial in which she was forced to represent herself, Judge
Jeffrey Colbath, declined to grant her any relief concluding
that although the Wife had “some legitimate gripes”, the
former Husband had not violated the timesharing provisions of
the agreement. Judge Colbath then went on to find that Merry
had “challenged” the postnuptial agreement which triggered a
forfeiture of $1.5 million and awarded over $264,000 to the
former husband for his prevailing party attorney's fees and
costs. Merry appealed.
When
Merry failed – as she was unable – to pay the $1.8 million
judgment against her, Judge Colbath issued a commitment order
addressing Merry’s failure to pay the outstanding money
judgment and directed that Merry be incarcerated until she
either paid the judgment or exercised one of the options
offered in lieu of paying the judgment. Additionally Judge
Colbath issued a second commitment order directing that Merry
be incarcerated until she: (1) was deposed in custody; and (2)
complied with the outstanding discovery requests in aid of
execution.
Merry
appealed all these orders but the Florida Fourth District
Court of Appeal dismissed her appeal as she was in contempt of
court for not complying with orders she did not have the
present ability to comply with. An appeal to the Florida
Supreme Court was taken and that court, in a 4-3 decision,
upheld the power of the Florida District Court of Appeals to
dismiss an appeal in their discretion under a judge-made
Catch-22 rule: An appeal can be dismissed for non-compliance
with a trial court order even if you cannot comply with that
order and therefore you cannot appeal the order.
In
response, Merry has filed two suits as more fully detailed at
FloridaFamilyCourt.com challenging both the
constitutionality of Florida’s public policy which punishes a
parent who seeks court protection for visitation rights and
denies an appeal on a patently void order.
Merry Morris Background Material
FloridaFamilyCourt.com
Merry
Morris has been punished by the Florida Family Court for
seeking that Court's help in securing her visitation rights to
her two minor children. The punishment? $1.8 million and a
warrant for her arrest when she failed to pay that amount.
The Florida Appellate system has dismissed her appeal. Merry
is now a fugitive for she faces the very real prospect that if
she submits to the arrest warrant she will remain indefinitely
incarcerated unable to comply with a contempt order she is not
able to appeal. See
Lawrence v. Goldberg for an example of an
indefinite incarceration case. Mr. Lawrence has apparently
been incarcerated since 1999.
The
Florida Supreme Court has refused to permit her appeal of this
order finding that she can be punished for the simple act of
coming to Florida Family Court to seek assistance in enforcing
her visitation rights in a 4-3 decision
Morris v. Morris.To their credit, Justices
Anstead, Pariente and Quince dissented finding that the
dismissal of Merry's appeal "potentially fosters a serious
miscarriage of justice, and violates the petitioner's
constitutional right to an appeal." A motion for rehearing is
pending with the Florida Supreme Court in this matter.
Merry
has now taken two actions. First, she has invoked the common
law writ of habeas corpus and petitioned the Florida Fourth
District Court of Appeal to consider whether her arrest
warrants are "intolerable restraints” deserving of review
under the law articulated at
Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 401 (1963). A copy
of that petition may be viewed
here.
Additionally, Merry has filed an action in the U.S. District
Court of Florida seeking emergency declaratory relief that (i)
Florida's policy of punishing parents for seeking relief from
Florida's Family Court to enforce visitation rights is
unconstitutional and violates public policy and (ii) Florida's
judge-made appellate rules which permits a Florida appellate
court to dismiss an appeal -- as the Florida Fourth District
Court of Appeal did here -- violates both Florida and Federal
Constitutional guarantees to due process. That matter pends
before Judge Hurley. Both the
Complaint and
Emergency Motion are available for review.
Further
questions can be directed
FloridaFamilyCourt.com.
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