Property Settlement Agreement

Property Settlement Agreement
question

When I signed my agreement after 31yrs of marriage, my ex to be and his lawyer added a 4th reason that I would receive no alimony. If he retired. He was 55 at the time and I was 53. He retired at 56 only 9 months after the divorce. He had signed the agreement stating he would not retire in the foreseeable future. Did he not defraud me? Why else add that?

answer

If you signed an agreement stating that if your ex-husband retired he could stop paying alimony, you now may be hard pressed to convince court that you should not be kept to your agreement. However, if the agreement expressly stated that there was no intent for him to retire in the "foreseeable future" nine months sounds to be in the foreseeable future and contrary to the agreement. However, if the agreement is silent and the "foreseeable future" promise was verbal, you'd have to prove to the court that they should consider that extrinsic evidence. If in fact the agreement included language stating that all of the agreements of the two of you are embodied in that agreement, that might make it harder for you to convince a court that they should even consider your claim that your ex-made the promise. Since he would obviously deny it, that too would be a battle. Your only course of action should be to hire a matrimonial attorney to review the agreement, the circumstances that you describe that they deem relevant, and your state's laws, to determine if you have a case. Once the attorney makes some preliminary determinations after meeting with you and conducting some review and analysis, ask him or her to estimate the likelihood of your winning a reinstatement of your alimony against the cost of the court motion. It wouldn't make much sense to spend $10,000 on a court motion of the attorney feels you only have say a 50/50 chance of collecting another $5,000 of alimony a year. Whatever the numbers are, you have to evaluate them with the attorney to determine what to do. Even if it was totally unfair and immoral what your ex did, you have to leave your feelings at home and evaluate the law and facts with your attorney to see how to proceed.

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