Second District Permits Corporate Discovery Notwithstanding Legal Ownership

The Second District Court posted its ruling in Bushong v. Peel today, and granted a petition for writ of certiorari permitting the Husband to obtain documents related to corporations that he contends form part of the marital estate.  The lower tribunal granted three motions for protective orders preventing the release of the documents as a result of a finding that the Husband had not established any ownership interest.  The Second District, however, held that the Husband showed sufficient interest in the companies to warrant quashing the protective orders, and in a footnote stated that “It may be that Mr. Bushong had failed to establish that he had any ownership interest in the Companies. But that interest would be a "legal" ownership interest only. Mr. Bushong has shown that he had a substantial equitable interest in them as marital assets because he started the Companies, operated them in conjunction with Ms. Peel until his summary dismissal, and was a major factor in their success. We do not detail here the many individual documents that are subject to the protective orders because Mr. Bushong has shown entitlement to all of them. His interest is substantial enough and his discovery requests were not too overbroad or burdensome.”  Bushong v. Peel, 2D11-4795 (Fla. 2d DCA 2012).