Court Opinion

ID: 9805231
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 17:43:54.363602+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:40:23.133895
License: Public Domain

Andrias and Saxe, JJ.,
concur in a separate memorandum by Saxe, J, as follows: We are confronted on this matrimonial appeal with a conflict between the supremacy of two important but divergent facets of public policy: “the strong public policy favoring individuals ordering and deciding their own interests through contractual arrangements” with prenuptial agreements (Bloomfield v Bloomfield, 97 NY2d 188 [2001]), and the competing policy — enunciated in Domestic Relations Law § 237 (a) — in favor of ensuring that nonmonied spouses have the ability to litigate legitimate issues (see Silverman v Silverman, 304 AD2d 41, 48 [1st Dept 2003]).
The parties entered into a prenuptial agreement that included a waiver of counsel fees. The wife sought to challenge the validity of the prenuptial agreement, and moved for various relief. I agree with the majority’s affirmance of the denial of plaintiffs requests (1) for an extension of time to challenge the parties’ prenuptial agreement, (2) for an order directing defendant to pay, pendente lite, the expenses for the Michigan house or for a car and driver once plaintiff regained the ability to drive, and (3) to renew her earlier request regarding the car and driver, based on purported new facts regarding the parties’ daughter. I also agree with the majority that it was a provident exercise of discretion for the motion court to award plaintiff $300,000 in interim counsel fees for trial preparation on issues of child support and custody, on condition that she present documentation of the legal work within 30 days after trial.
However, one aspect of the majority’s opinion seems to me to require a more elaborate explanation that what is provided, although I agree with the result. That aspect of the ruling modi*586fies the order on appeal insofar as Supreme Court denied counsel fees for any issues other than child-related matters, in view of plaintiffs waiver of counsel fees contained in the prenuptial agreement. Our order, despite that fee waiver, directs Supreme Court to determine at trial whether the fee waiver may be set aside, with the following explanation:
“[P]laintiff’s request for counsel fees beyond those incurred for child-related issues is an issue appropriate to leave for trial (see Kessler, 33 AD3d at 47-48). As Supreme Court has ruled that plaintiff is entitled to a hearing on her challenge to the maintenance provisions of the prenuptial agreement, and, as noted, that ruling is not challenged on appeal, an award of counsel fees may be necessary despite the fee waiver, ‘as justice requires’ (Domestic Relations Law § 237 [a]) in order to ensure a level playing field to litigate her claim.”
I agree with the majority that under the unique procedural posture of this matter, it is appropriate to leave for trial the question of whether plaintiff may be entitled to an award of counsel fees for the litigation of the non-child-related issue of maintenance. However, I believe that given the strong possibility that this ruling may be misunderstood or misapplied, substantially more examination and discussion of our holding is required. I therefore write separately to discuss the limited circumstances where it is appropriate to consider awarding counsel fees despite such a fee waiver.
Initially, it is important to strongly emphasize that under most circumstances, courts should enforce counsel fee waivers contained in prenuptial agreements. The law sets the bar very high for a party seeking to void provisions of a prenuptial agreement (see Van Kipnis v Van Kipnis, 11 NY3d 573, 577 [2008]; Barocas v Barocas, 94 AD3d 551, 551-552 [2012]). As a general rule, “[d]uly executed prenuptial agreements are accorded the same presumption of legality as any other contract” (Bloomfield v Bloomfield, 97 NY2d 188, 193 [2001]). And, most importantly for the present purposes, prenuptial agreements most often involve substantial disparities of wealth between the parties; nevertheless, such disparities by themselves do not create grounds to set aside marital agreements (see Smith v Walsh-Smith, 66 AD3d 534, 535 [1st Dept 2009]; Strong v Dubin, 48 AD3d 232, 233 [1st Dept 2008]).
Of course, prenuptial agreements may be set aside in their entirety on grounds of “fraud, duress, or other inequitable conduct” (Cioffi-Petrakis v Petrakis, 103 AD3d 766, 767 [2d Dept 2013]). Nevertheless, such results remain the exception rather than the rule. As one Nassau County Supreme Court *587Justice has aptly observed, a prenuptial agreement is likely to be upheld as long as “each spouse retains a lawyer [of] his or her own choosing, is provided with a proposed agreement with sufficient time to give due consideration to the serious consequences of the proposed terms, is given fair and adequate disclosure, and is presented with an agreement that does not scream inequity or will leave one party practically destitute” (C.S. v L.S., NYLJ 1202610051412, *8 [Sup Ct, Nassau Co June 6, 2013]; see Alton L. Abramowitz, ‘Live by the Prenup, Die by the Prenup!,’ NYLJ, Aug. 29, 2013 at 3, col 1).
When a prenuptial agreement is not set aside in its entirety based on fraud or unconscionability, specific provisions of it may still be stricken. This is because Domestic Relations Law § 236 (B) (3) dictates that extra scrutiny be given to maintenance and child support provisions of marital agreements, defined as agreements “made before or during the marriage” (Domestic Relations Law § 236 [B] [3]). While the statute directs that property distribution provisions are “valid and enforceable” as long as they are “in writing, subscribed by the parties, and acknowledged or proven in the manner required to entitle a deed to be recorded” (id.), it specifies that maintenance provisions are valid and enforceable “provided that such terms were fair and reasonable at the time of the making of the agreement and are not unconscionable at the time of entry of final judgment.” In addition, such provisions are subject to General Obligations Law § 5-311, which prohibits marital agreements that relieve either spouse of the support obligation to the extent that the other is likely to become a public charge (id.). With regard to child support provisions, the statute directs that they shall remain subject to the protections of Domestic Relations Law § 236 (id.).* So, only in those respects does the law dictate that prenuptial agreements waiving or limiting claims by one spouse against the other must receive a greater degree of scrutiny than ordinary contracts when considering whether they must be enforced.
It is important to note that the heightened standard that the Domestic Relations Law creates for review of maintenance and child support provisions of marital agreements has no counter*588part for counsel fee waivers contained in such agreements. There is simply no statutory basis for setting aside a presumptively valid counsel fee waiver on any grounds other than the usual grounds for setting aside a contract provision, such as unconscionability based on overreaching or inequitable conduct in the execution of the agreement (see Barocas v Barocas, 94 AD3d at 552). Accordingly, when a valid prenuptial agreement includes a waiver of counsel fees, ordinarily there is no viable basis for an award of such fees under section 237.
Nevertheless, there may be circumstances when a triable issue emerges despite the existence of a prenuptial agreement, and the possible need for litigation of that triable issue creates with it a possibility — not a certainty — that the agreement’s fee waiver may be found unenforceable to that extent.
The case of Kessler v Kessler (33 AD3d 42 [2d Dept 2006], lv dismissed 8 NY3d 968 [2007]) helps illustrate this concept. There, although the remainder of the prenuptial agreement was upheld, the Second Department affirmed an order holding a prenuptial agreement’s fee waiver to be “unconscionable and unenforceable in light of the strong public policy embodied in Domestic Relations 237 (a).” The Court acknowledged the inherent conflict between the “strong public policy favoring individuals ordering and deciding their own interests through contractual arrangements,” and the policy embodied in Domestic Relations Law § 237, “in favor of assuring that matrimonial matters are determined by parties operating on a level playing field” (Kessler, 33 AD3d at 45). Being careful to recognize that “not every agreement waiving the right to seek an award of an attorney’s fee should be set aside” (id. at 47), the Second Department concluded that “[i]f . . . enforcement of the [fee waiver] would preclude the nonmonied spouse from carrying on or defending a matrimonial action as justice requires, the provision may be held unenforceable” (id. at 48). In setting aside the fee waiver, the Court of Appeals pointed to the wife’s suggestion that even if the prenuptial agreement was upheld, there were triable issues concerning what property was covered by the agreement and what was acquired after the agreement. Therefore, a legitimate need for some litigation was presented, creating a valid basis for an award of counsel fees despite the valid prenuptial agreement.
Here, the issue that needs to be tried, which may make an award of counsel fees necessary despite the fee waiver, in order to ensure a level playing field, is not an issue that the prenuptial agreement failed to cover, as was the case in Kessler. Rather, the motion court ruled that the wife is entitled to a hearing on *589her challenge to the maintenance provisions of the prenuptial agreement, and that ruling is not challenged on appeal. Consequently, although nothing in the record before this Court justifies the need for such a hearing, we must accept, based on the unchallenged ruling, that plaintiff has made the requisite showing establishing the existence of a potentially meritorious challenge to the maintenance provision of the prenuptial agreement, which could, in turn, give her a legitimate basis to challenge her fee waiver.
It bears emphasis that awarding counsel fees despite a fee waiver, or even finding a triable issue regarding whether counsel fees should be awarded despite a fee waiver, is not normally warranted where the parties entered into a valid prenuptial agreement — and a disparity between the parties’ finances does not, in itself, change that fact. Rather, the presented circumstances must be such as would actually preclude the nonmonied spouse from carrying on or defending a viable claim requiring litigation, so that justice could require an award of counsel fees to the non-monied spouse as contemplated by Domestic Relations Law § 237 (a), notwithstanding that spouse’s fee waiver. The need to conduct a fact-finding inquiry into whether justice requires an award of counsel fees despite a fee waiver will only emerge where the party challenging the waiver has made a prima facie showing that there is a meritorious, or at least potentially meritorious, challenge to terms of the prenuptial agreement, prompting the need for litigation.
The majority’s decision referring for trial the issue of the fee waiver’s validity, without sufficient discussion, could encourage future baseless applications for awards of counsel fees despite fairly-negotiated, valid prenuptial agreements containing fee waivers. I am concerned about more than just the possibility of baseless awards of counsel fees in such situations; I also anticipate that fee applications which ought to be rejected outright may unnecessarily be referred for trial regarding the issue of the enforceability of the fee waiver. This would in turn result in the accrual of unnecessary fees, which additional costs will then be included in settlement demands, any time a court perceives an issue of fact regarding the enforceability of provisions of a facially valid prenuptial agreement.
To be clear, awarding counsel fees or trying the issue of whether such fees should be awarded despite a fee waiver, should be considered only in the narrowest of circumstances, when (1) litigation of an issue is required although it is covered by the parties’ prenuptial agreement, and (2) justice requires an award of fees to allow the nonmonied spouse to litigate that issue (Domestic Relations Law 237 [a]).

 Notably, I am not addressing here the potential need for awards of counsel fees, despite fee waivers, needed to litigate child-related disputes. Indeed, in the present case, the parties’ prenuptial agreement properly allows for court awards of fees for child-related issues, albeit providing for their award at the conclusion of the litigation, without consideration of whether the non-monied spouse will have the ability to assume that cost. The present discussion is limited to awards of counsel fees for non-child-related legal work where the client waived such counsel fees in a prenuptial agreement.