Sherry Adler-Whitford, St. Petersburg Times Newspaper, Spring Hill edition

Public News Record

2009-07-28 20:50:33 UTC

Sherry Adler of Florida case re: annulment / divorce appeal in public record
at Rominger Legal
http://www.romingerlegal.com/floridacourts/court_opinions1/2d01-215.html

Sherry Adler file can be viewed at the Hillsborough County Courthouse in
Tampa Florida case # 98-012423.
Some of it can also be viewed online at
http://www.hillsclerk.com/PublicWeb/search_official_records.aspx
and at
http://www.hillsclerk.com/publicweb/Search_Court_Records.aspx

Excerpt: "Viewing all of the alleged facts most favorably to Mr. Adler, it
appears that Mrs. Adler has been untruthful to Mr. Adler, the state
of Florida, and the trial court with respect to the number of her prior
marriages. At the outset of the couple's courtship, Mrs. Adler stated
to Mr. Adler that she had been married two times; the first marriage ended
due to the death of her husband, and her second marriage
ended by divorce. Mrs. Adler was actually married four times, and all of
those marriages ended by divorce. Mrs. Adler also
misrepresented the number of previous marriages on her marriage application
with the state of Florida and in her sworn interrogatory
responses to Mr. Adler's questions. Mr. Adler contended, and the trial judge
so found, that he would not have married Mrs. Adler had he
been aware of her actual marital history. The trial judge proceeded to grant
an annulment to Mr. Adler based on what he characterized as
fraudulent statements by Mrs. Adler which induced Mr. Adler into marriage."

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF FLORIDA
SECOND DISTRICT
CASE NO. 2D01-215

SHERRY ADLER,
Appellant,

v.

MR. ADLER,
Appellee.
_______________________________

Opinion filed November 16, 2001.

Appeal from the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County;

In this dissolution proceeding, Sherry Adler appeals the trial court's
partial final judgment of annulment entered in favor her husband. Mrs.
Adler presents two points on appeal, the first of which is determinative and
is a basis for reversal.

Many of the facts pertinent to this appeal are undisputed. Viewing all of
the alleged facts most favorably to Mr. Adler, it appears that Mrs.
Adler has been untruthful to Mr. Adler, the state of Florida, and the trial
court with respect to the number of her prior marriages. At the
outset of the couple's courtship, Mrs. Adler stated to Mr. Adler that she
had been married two times; the first marriage ended due to the
death of her husband, and her second marriage ended by divorce. Mrs. Adler
was actually married four times, and all of those marriages
ended by divorce. Mrs. Adler also misrepresented the number of previous
marriages on her marriage application with the state of
Florida and in her sworn interrogatory responses to Mr. Adler's questions.
Mr. Adler contended, and the trial judge so found, that he
would not have married Mrs. Adler had he been aware of her actual marital
history. The trial judge proceeded to grant an annulment to
Mr. Adler based on what he characterized as fraudulent statements by Mrs.
Adler which induced Mr. Adler into marriage.

It is not suggested that Mrs. Adler lacked the legal ability to engage in
the marital relationship with Mr. Adler. The parties had been legally
married almost ten years before Mrs. Adler filed her petition for
dissolution of the marriage. The parties have not only lived as husband
and wife for this period of time, but the record reflects that they have
been working in a business together. The parties also stipulated that
the marriage was consummated.

The husband relies on Jones v. Jones, 161 So. 836 (Fla. 1935), in support of
affirmance. However, that case is distinguishable both
factually and legally. In Jones, the wife married the husband when she was
still married. During the marriage the first husband died. The
court stated that the parties' marriage was therefore void but ripened into
a valid common-law marriage after the first husband died. The
husband sought and was granted an annulment because the husband did not have
sexual relations with the wife during the common-law
marriage after the time he learned of the fraud. What Mr. Adler fails to
note is that the marriage at issue in Jones was "legally voidable
although not absolutely void at the time" the suit was filed. In the case at
bar, the marriage was never void or voidable.

We are persuaded by the cases cited by Mrs. Adler that the trial judge erred
in terminating the parties' relationship by annulment. In
Rubenstein v. Rubenstein, 46 So. 2d 602, 603 (Fla. 1950), the supreme court
stated unequivocally that "it is established law that one who
has become a party to that ceremony by fraud of the other party may secure
annulment if the marriage has not been completed by sexual
intercourse." Accord Savini v. Savini, 58 So. 2d 193 (Fla. 1952) (holding
that although appellee committed fraud upon appellant, the
marriage was consummated and fraud alone is not sufficient to grant
annulment). Therefore, the trial court erred in granting partial final
judgment of annulment.

We therefore reverse the judgment of annulment and remand for further
proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Post by Public News Record
Sherry Adler-Whitford article from St. Petersburg Times Newspaper, Spring
Hill edition.
Sherry Adler-Whitford loves clothes.
It's not often this 64-year-old Spring Hill resident dresses down. Even
when she works out.
"It makes me feel better. I like to wear nice clothes," Adler-Whitford
said in her northeast London accent. "It makes me feel better about myself
and I work very hard, so why not look very good?"
She works out five days a week at the YMCA Hernando Branch, aiming to keep
off the 70-plus pounds she's lost in seven months.
Adler-Whitford had to change. This time last year, she weighed 208 pounds,
and her health suffered, with one ailment piled on top of another. Today,
things are different.
"The difference is really night and day," Adler-Whitford said. "I don't
even like looking at photos of what I looked like because I like this much
better."
Adler-Whitford was diagnosed with asthma in 1997, and the next 11 years
were hell.
She couldn't walk to her mailbox without getting winded. She used a
wheelchair and sometimes needed to be carried upstairs to bed.
Doctors put her on steroids to battle the asthma. Advair, which added to
her weight, and Xolair, a shot that would knock her out for nearly three
days. They even wanted her to carry around an oxygen tank.
She couldn't even walk long distances.
As her weight went up, things got worse. She battled acid reflux disease
and chronic pulmonary ailments Adler-Whitford blames on smoking.
Then last year she was diagnosed with diabetes.
"I was so ashamed that it was like they told me I had AIDS," Sherry said.
"There was no history of it in my family so it was just so horrible."
A diet was warranted. So Sherry stopped eating anything white: bread,
rice, pasta, potatoes. Then she had to go to diabetes school: three weeks
of teaching her how to cope and live with it.
Eventually, the weight started to drop - and she does it all without
taking insulin.
"Getting diabetes was a blessing," Adler-Whitford said. "I'm not being
sarcastic. I'm sorry because I know for some people it's tougher than
this, but it's what got me to change things."
But a new problem arose. Excess skin, which meant sagging arms and belly.
Six months ago, she headed to the YMCA.
Now, she's at the gym more than the employees.
Once at the YMCA, Adler-Whitford had to start a regimen. She still has an
emergency inhaler, just in case.
"She always seems to have a really good attitude toward what she has to go
through and then it goes toward exercising as well," the Y trainer said.
"Her whole story is remarkable in itself, considering everything she's had
to overcome to get to her current weight."
Once she got down to 138 pounds, Adler-Whitford went on a shopping spree,
trying to replenish a wardrobe of clothes that were now too big.
It's just one of the things she's had to get used to.
"Take the person that I was - basically a cripple," she said, choking back
tears. "That's silly because I wasn't really one and didn't want to be
one. ... It was 11 years of not feeling good about myself."
It's not over. Adler-Whitford wants to lose more weight. There are, after
all, many more stores to hit and more clothes to buy.
"I look in the mirror, and it's just wonderful. It's so nice to fit into
clothes and not look like it's two pigs in a sack trying to get out," she
said. "One of the nicest things I can do now is cut my own toenails
because I can see them!
"I know it sounds silly, but those silly little things make me feel better
because now I can do them for myself."
Published Monday, March 16, 2009 Spring Hill
http://www.tampabay.com/sports/community/article984417.ece