What Constitutes a Change in Circumstances that would Cause a Trial Court to Invalidate a Prenuptial Agreement?

In an unpublished decision on October 26, 2006, the Michigan court of appeals distinguished Reed v Reed, 265 Mich App 131 (2005), holding that the particular facts of the case warranted invalidating the parties' prenuptial agreement on the grounds that circumstances had changed making enforcement of the agreement inequitable. Trudeau-Chene v Chene, Docket No. 260734 (10/26/2006)

Counsel for parties who have a prenuptial agreement will want to compare the factual situations in these two cases for guidance in when it may be possible to set aside a prenuptial agreement on these grounds. This is particularly relevant where the divorcing parties have had a long-term marriage and there have been significant accruals of property -- or as in Trudeau-Chene, where there have been substantial depletions in a parties' separate property benefiting the other (combined albeit, with other changes in circumstances).

You can read Trudeau-Chene v Chene here.

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Comments

[Diana L. Skaggs]

Jeanne, the Kentucky Supreme Court just decided one of these cases, too, and it was amazing how the opinion, concurring opinion, and dissent viewed what I believed to be a no brainer. Here's a link to the post I did on that opinion:http://louisvilledivorce.typepad.com/info/2006/09/after_the_kentu.html