Third District Court of Appeal State of Florida Opinion filed February 3, 2021. Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing. ________________ No. 3D19-1884 Lower Tribunal No. 17-258-P ________________ Paul Evan Bates, Appellant, vs. Magda Jhovanna Bates, Appellee. An Appeal from a non-final order from the Circuit Court for Monroe County, Sharon I. Hamilton, Judge. Ross & Girten, and Lauri Waldman Ross, for appellant. Law Office of Jack Bridges, P.A., and James R. (Jack) Bridges, for appellee. Before LOGUE, SCALES and LINDSEY, JJ. SCALES, J. In this marital dissolution action, Paul Evan Bates appeals an August 30, 2019 non-final order finding the parties’ prenuptial agreement invalid because it was the product of duress and coercion. We have jurisdiction. See Fla. R. App. P. 9.130(a)(3)(C)(iii)c. (“Appeals to the district courts of appeal of nonfinal orders are limited to those that . . . determine . . . in family law matters . . . that a marital agreement is invalid in its entirety[.]”). Concluding that the trial court’s findings as to coercion are supported by competent, substantial evidence, we affirm. 1 I. RELEVANT FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND 2 On May 29, 2001, Paul Evan Bates (“Husband”) and Magda Jhovanna Bates (“Wife”) met in Cali, Colombia through a matchmaking website called Latin Connection. At the time, Husband was a divorced, forty-one-year-old commercial airline pilot with a net worth of approximately $4 million. Husband was looking for a “Christian based woman of child-bearing age” to marry, bring to the Florida Keys and start a family. Wife, who was a virgin 1 In this opinion, we address only whether the trial court erred by invalidating the parties’ prenuptial agreement on the grounds of duress and coercion. We affirm, without discussion, the remainder of the issues raised in this appeal. 2 The facts set forth herein are taken from the lower court’s factual findings in the August 30, 2019 non-final order and, to the extent they are undisputed, from the trial transcript. 2 and had never been married, turned eighteen years old just three days prior to meeting Husband. She had the equivalent of a high school education and was in her second year of medical school in Colombia. Wife was looking for a wealthy American man to marry and to bring her to the United States. The parties’ courtship was far from ordinary. Because Husband did not speak Spanish and Wife spoke little English, Husband used a translator during the parties’ initial meetings. A chaperone accompanied the parties on their dates, which occurred when Husband had layovers on flights to Cali. To breach the language barrier, Husband used a handheld translator and translation programs on a laptop. In June 2001, during an unchaperoned trip to Cartagena, Colombia, the parties had sex and became engaged the same day. When Wife later learned that she was pregnant, Husband paid for her to have an abortion in mid-August 2001, shortly before the parties married on August 31, 2001. Wife’s family was unaware of her premarital ...
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