I signed a prenup two days before my wedding. No disclosure of our assets and I had no way to obtain a lawyer since I lived in another state. Document was signed by one witness and was never notarized. Is this valid? ...

Jurisdiction: 

Area of Law: 

Question: 

I signed a prenup two days before my wedding. No disclosure of our assets and I had no way to obtain a lawyer since I lived in another state. Document was signed by one witness and was never notarized. Is this valid?

Selected Answer: 

DakotaLegal's picture

 

 
There are some major problems, obviously, with how the pre-nuptial agreement was signed. But there are much more important issues than having only a single witness and notarizing. It’s not certain in your case, for example, when the pre-nup was signed. If it was before 2004, there may be different pre-nup rules applied. That’s because in 2004 the Pennsylvania legislature enacted 23 Pa.C.S. § 3106. You can find the Pennsylvania pre-nuptial law at http://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/23/23.HTM.
 
If you signed the pre-nup in the 1980’s, Pennsylvania courts usually applied traditional contract rules. This meant there had to be some measure of “fairness” between the soon-to-be husband and wife. But in 1990, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down that “fairness” doctrine too. Instead, the Court would only require two things: (1) that there had been “complete disclosure” of all your spouse’s assets, and (2) that this disclosure was accurate at the time of signing. Under this older, 1990s standard, your arguments to make the prenuptial invalid are probably much weaker than under the new Pennsylvania pre-nup rules. You probably have a better case if the 2004 law applies to your pre-nup. There’s a case similar to yours, where the pre-nup was offered by a husband, the day before the wedding. In that case, the Supreme Court upheld the pre-nup, to keep the wife from getting anything. http://caselaw.findlaw.com/pa-supreme-court/1314526.html. The key in that case was that both parties were equally matched and the pre-nup was clear. But that case was in the 1990s.
 
So let’s fast forward from the 1990s to 2004. The Pennsylvania legislature actually returned much of the idea of “fairness” that existed before the 1990 decision. In fact, if you want to deny the validity of the pre-nuptial agreement, your best chance is to apply the 2004 law.
 
Apply Your Facts To The 2004 Law
 
The fact that you only had two days is probably not important in terms of giving you a “fair” amount of time to read the pre-nup, or to get legal help. But before ignoring the facts surrounding the way you signed the pre-nup, stop to think how they might fit to prove a different argument than ‘fairness.’ For example, the short period of time (two days) might have made it impossible for you to understand or confirm or question the accuracy of your spouse’s total assets. For that matter, it may have been difficult for your spouse to have accurately made an accounting at that time. Try to recall the circumstances of how the disclosures of assets were made…were they presented in great detail or given to you on a napkin? Since signing the pre-nup, have you had reason to discover significant other assets?
 
There have been several court cases, reaching different results in upholding or rejecting pre-nup. Here are the cases, and the rules they represent…
 
Can there be fraud in hiding the value of gifts and assets? Yes, but it’s hard to prove. In one case, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said there was a duty on the part of the wife (who had been asked to sign the pre-nup) to also check the value of the assets she had been given. This limited the wife’s right to claim there had been any fraud. On the other hand, the case also stands for the principle that a spouse should take note of specific promises that were made alongside the pre-nup’s signing. http://caselaw.findlaw.com/pa-supreme-court/1461858.html.
 
Be careful not to make any new agreements. It’s happened sometimes that one spouse made an offer as a divorce settlement…a post-nuptial agreement. This could undermine better, earlier rights in the pre-nuptial agreement. http://caselaw.findlaw.com/pa-supreme-court/1315794.html.

All Comments

DakotaLegal's picture

 

 
There are some major problems, obviously, with how the pre-nuptial agreement was signed. But there are much more important issues than having only a single witness and notarizing. It’s not certain in your case, for example, when the pre-nup was signed. If it was before 2004, there may be different pre-nup rules applied. That’s because in 2004 the Pennsylvania legislature enacted 23 Pa.C.S. § 3106. You can find the Pennsylvania pre-nuptial law at http://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/23/23.HTM.
 
If you signed the pre-nup in the 1980’s, Pennsylvania courts usually applied traditional contract rules. This meant there had to be some measure of “fairness” between the soon-to-be husband and wife. But in 1990, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down that “fairness” doctrine too. Instead, the Court would only require two things: (1) that there had been “complete disclosure” of all your spouse’s assets, and (2) that this disclosure was accurate at the time of signing. Under this older, 1990s standard, your arguments to make the prenuptial invalid are probably much weaker than under the new Pennsylvania pre-nup rules. You probably have a better case if the 2004 law applies to your pre-nup. There’s a case similar to yours, where the pre-nup was offered by a husband, the day before the wedding. In that case, the Supreme Court upheld the pre-nup, to keep the wife from getting anything. http://caselaw.findlaw.com/pa-supreme-court/1314526.html. The key in that case was that both parties were equally matched and the pre-nup was clear. But that case was in the 1990s.
 
So let’s fast forward from the 1990s to 2004. The Pennsylvania legislature actually returned much of the idea of “fairness” that existed before the 1990 decision. In fact, if you want to deny the validity of the pre-nuptial agreement, your best chance is to apply the 2004 law.
 
Apply Your Facts To The 2004 Law
 
The fact that you only had two days is probably not important in terms of giving you a “fair” amount of time to read the pre-nup, or to get legal help. But before ignoring the facts surrounding the way you signed the pre-nup, stop to think how they might fit to prove a different argument than ‘fairness.’ For example, the short period of time (two days) might have made it impossible for you to understand or confirm or question the accuracy of your spouse’s total assets. For that matter, it may have been difficult for your spouse to have accurately made an accounting at that time. Try to recall the circumstances of how the disclosures of assets were made…were they presented in great detail or given to you on a napkin? Since signing the pre-nup, have you had reason to discover significant other assets?
 
There have been several court cases, reaching different results in upholding or rejecting pre-nup. Here are the cases, and the rules they represent…
 
Can there be fraud in hiding the value of gifts and assets? Yes, but it’s hard to prove. In one case, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said there was a duty on the part of the wife (who had been asked to sign the pre-nup) to also check the value of the assets she had been given. This limited the wife’s right to claim there had been any fraud. On the other hand, the case also stands for the principle that a spouse should take note of specific promises that were made alongside the pre-nup’s signing. http://caselaw.findlaw.com/pa-supreme-court/1461858.html.
 
Be careful not to make any new agreements. It’s happened sometimes that one spouse made an offer as a divorce settlement…a post-nuptial agreement. This could undermine better, earlier rights in the pre-nuptial agreement. http://caselaw.findlaw.com/pa-supreme-court/1315794.html.