Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Prenuptial Agreements

A Florida prenuptial agreement, in addition to determining a spouse’s rights in the event of divorce, can also determine a spouse’s rights in the event of death of the other spouse. When a probate court reviews a prenuptial agreement, the analysis may be different than if a divorce court were reviewing the agreement. This was an issue in the case Williams-Paris v. Joseph, et. al., 4D20-1760 (Fla. 1st DCA September 1, 2021).

The couple in this case resided together for years before they got married. Approximately one year before they were married, the husband told the wife he wanted to enter a prenuptial agreement. The wife indicated at that time that she did not want to pay for an agreement. No further discussion about a prenuptial agreement was had until the morning of the parties’ wedding a year later when the husband woke the wife up at 7:00 am on their wedding day and demanded that the wife find a prenuptial agreement online and sign it. The wife, fearing embarrassment if the wedding was called off, did as the husband asked. After filling out an online template, the husband drove the wife to a notary and they both signed the agreement. At the time of their marriage, the husband was 83 and had been married four times before. The wife was 58 and had also been married previously.

Four years after they married, the husband passed away. The wife then petitioned the probate court to invalidate the prenuptial agreement, to declare the residence described in paragraph 2 of the agreement to be the husband’s homestead subject to her one-half interest, and to award her intestate and elective share of the estate as the surviving spouse. The petition was served on the husband’s children. The wife also sought a determination of whether Florida or Massachusetts law applied to enforceability of the agreement. Ultimately, the trial court granted summary judgment to the children on the wife’s claims of coercion and duress and after a nonjury trial on the wife’s arguments of misrepresentation and unilateral mistake, the probate court denied the wife’s petition to invalidate the agreement. The wife appealed.

The appellate court analyzed two issues: (1) the choice of law in examining the agreement and (2) the interpretation of the agreement. As to the choice of law, the appellate court noted “In the probate proceeding below, the parties litigated the application of section 732.702(2), Florida Statutes (2019), a provision of Florida’s Probate Code, which provides: Each spouse shall make a fair disclosure to the other of that spouse’s estate if the agreement, contract, or waiver is executed after marriage. No disclosure shall be required for an agreement, contract, or waiver executed before marriage. § 732.702(2), Fla. Stat. (2019). The Wife sought to apply Massachusetts law to the agreement because Massachusetts law required full financial disclosure for marital agreements entered into both before and after marriage. The Children sought to apply section 732.702(2) because no financial disclosure is required to validate a marital agreement executed before marriage.” Determining a public policy exception applies to the choice of law rule of lex loci contractus, the appellate court held “Because (1) the Wife and the Children, one of whom is a Florida resident, both stood to benefit from the decedent’s homestead; (2) Florida has a strong public policy for homestead protection; and (3) Florida has specific statutes addressing the requirements for waiver of homestead protection, we affirm the probate court’s decision to apply Florida law, rather than Massachusetts law, to the prenuptial agreement’s validity.”

Turning to the issue of interpreting the provision of the agreement concerning the homestead property, the appellate court analyzed the specific language of the agreement and concluded “We agree with the Wife’s argument that paragraph 2’s language describing a specific parcel of real property by address and stating the described property ‘shall not be affected by this Agreement’ unambiguously exempts it from the agreement. For three reasons, we are not persuaded by the Children’s argument that paragraph 2’s provision for the payment of expenses indicates that paragraph 2 was only to be effective while the decedent was alive: (1) the language ‘shall not be affected by this Agreement’ would be totally superfluous and without meaning, given the listing of the specific property in both paragraph 2 and the multiple instances of ‘what’s mine is mine, what’s yours is yours, and what’s ours is ours’ language; (2) at least two of paragraph 2’s listed expenses would continue to be payable after the decedent’s death (assuming the decedent paid off the mortgage during his lifetime); and (3) paragraph 2’s listed expenses do not include maintenance expenses for the house and yard (if the expense language’s intent was to demonstrate paragraph 2 only pertains to decedent’s lifetime, it makes no sense that key expenses would be omitted).”

Prenuptial agreements should be carefully entered since they can affect significant rights. Schedule a consultation with a Miami prenuptial agreement attorney to learn more about how a prenuptial agreement can help you.