A Long Island woman was tricked into signing a prenuptial agreement based on false promises by her millionaire husband, a New York appeals court has ruled.
In what is being hailed as a landmark case, the court upheld a judge’s decision to void a prenup signed by the woman before her marriage to a commercial property developer.
The woman won her case by convincing a judge of “fraud by the inducement” in a contract, according to the New York Post and Yahoo’s Shine blog. She said that the prenup was sprung on her just four days before her wedding with a promise that the document would be destroyed once the couple had children and her name was on the deed to the house.
But that didn’t happen – and it was those broken promises that convinced the court to rule in her favor.
“Many couples discuss the terms of their prenups and say they will do or say things in the future that are not memorialized in writing,” Vikki Ziegler, a celebrity divorce lawyer, told Yahoo Shine. “However, this fraudulent inducement to buy a house, put the marital home in joint name and make other financial incentives after the parties wed appeared to sway the appellate panel who agreed to set aside the prenuptial agreement based on fraud.”
The property developer filed for divorce in 2010, but the couple had not been able to finalize the divorce due to the dispute over the prenuptial agreement. Now, the divorce can proceed.
If you are considering divorce and are concerned about how you marital assets will be divided, talk to a North Carolina divorce and separation attorney who is knowledgeable about property distribution.
