Opinion ID: 2455593
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the antenuptial agreement between tom and kathy gentry was intended to control the disposition of all property of the parties upon termination of the marriage, whether by death or by divorce.

Text: The Court of Appeals held the Gentry antenuptial agreement was ambiguous. We disagree; but we conclude, as did the Court of Appeals, that the agreement is a valid and controlling contract for the disposition of all Tom and Kathy's property upon termination of their marriage by divorce. The preamble of the agreement states that both parties desire that their marriage shall not in any way change their legal property rights or the rights of their children or heirs at law to the property of each of them as they presently are before the marriage.... (emphasis added). The final paragraph states that the agreement is made for the purposes of insuring neither party will claim an interest in the estate of the other. Tom argues that the preamble is clear and controlling and the concluding paragraph is nothing more than an effort to steer clear of the prohibition of Stratton v. Wilson, 170 Ky. 61, 185 S.W. 522 (1916) against agreements providing for, and looking to, future separation after marriage. Kathy cites the concluding paragraph of the agreement as evidence the parties intended the agreement to take effect only in the event of termination of the marriage by death. In the alternative, Kathy argues that the final paragraph, expressing a more limited purpose than the preamble, creates an ambiguity which must be resolved in Kathy's favor. By the operative terms of the antenuptial agreement, Tom and Kathy renounced and released to each other, as well as to each other's heirs and assigns, any and all interest in property of which the other was then seized or which the other might thereafter acquire. [1] In unambiguous terms, then, the parties agreed that upon termination of the marriage each would relinquish to the other, or the other's heirs, as the case might be, all rights in property which the other owned at the time of the marriage or which the other might own at dissolution of the marriage. In view of the clear and unambiguous provisions in the reciprocal renunciation and release, there is no need to address any arguable inconsistency in the preliminary and concluding purpose statements. They are not essential parts of the contract City of Elizabethtown v. Cralle, Ky., 317 S.W.2d 184 (1958); Jones v. City of Paducah, 283 Ky. 628, 142 S.W.2d 365 (1940); 17 Am. Jur.2d Contracts § 268, and serve only to aid construction if the contract is unclear. It is not. The operative provisions must therefore be given effect: Tom and Kathy each relinquished unto the other, in the event of their divorce, all property which the other owned at their marriage and which each might own at the termination of their marriage, regardless of any legal rights which might otherwise have accrued to either spouse as a result of the marriage.