arnoldx
recently joined
Reged: 12/23/08
Posts: 2
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a separation agree. was drawn by the plaintiffs atty in 1995 asking for nothing,period and was acknowledged /filed,etc --it specifically stated the agree. would "live"through reconciliations which occurred in '96----a second separation took place in 2000 and the defendant took the agreement to an atty to obtain a divorce---this atty requested that both reaffirm the agreement from '95 which both parties did---when the agreement was presented to the court it was refused by someone on a judges staff as "stale " and the defendant was advised to have a new agreement drawn and submitted,etc---the original plaintiff balked and demanded maintenance,etc and while the "discussions" were taking place they again reconciled---please do not bail out---this took place --i am one of the parties---in 2007 the original plaintiff again left and filed for divorce---and despite the absolute specficity of the language in the '95 agreement (reaffiirmed in '00 when it was ostensibly delared stale)all the lawyers spoken to,including my own all agree the sep.agree. is "toast"--
i may be naive,i am certainly not an atty. but i view the agree. as a contract and whatever it says should have standing in a court and the the rest of the planet ---before i retired i was involved in real estate contracts for the fed govt and some of those deals ran 50-60 yrs and the rents were eventually way below mkt and the lessors obligations for repairs and maintenece so wide they were losing $ by the ton---and no court ever said they could get off the hook because the lease was stale---it's like a twilight zone story---the judge simply elects to disregard a valid sep agree. because he/she chooses to--
question--does anyone have any knowledge of this situation,personal or otherwise ,can you offer advice/ case law/anything which will enable me to reverse this "decision" or tell me why i must accept it---i am not a believer in banging one 's head against the wall if this happens frequently----but if i'm some sort of test case or the victim of an arbitrary decision i will fight---
help---
and thank you for reading this and any assistance/advice/info you may offer---
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preemiemom
Carpal \'Tunnel
Reged: 01/17/07
Posts: 16032
Loc: New York
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A Stipulation of Settlement (or Separation Agreement) is only valid in Supreme (divorce) Court if it is attached to a DIVORCE DECREE. Yes, I have experience with this with my now-ex husband with his first marriage. They had a Stip, fully executed (although not filed), turns out, 2 years later, my now-ex finds out? He was NEVER DIVORCED. His ex-wife never filed the divorce papers due to some problem with them and she just didn't bother.
After consulting with an attorney, to the tune of $5,000, he had to re-do his divorce, INCLUDING the Stipulation of Settlement (which was indeed "dead") and his now-ex 1st wife, of course, re-did all the terms of it.
The attorney advised my now ex-husband that he could. .potentially.. enforce the original Stipulation is CIVIL court (because it was an executed "contract") and try it under contract law; however, it would not hold up, on its own, in Supreme Court, relative to a divorce. He was SOL.
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arnoldx
recently joined
Reged: 12/23/08
Posts: 2
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thanks for responding----my papers have been filed ,etc and are quite clear to the layman and even attys who read it---all you need to do,it says ,is file for divorce and voila ,you are divorced---and again all who read it cannot understand why it is even questioned---except attys who ,to a man/women all say the same thing----matrimonial law is not like other contract law,ie,it is not etched in stone and is subject to interpretation by the courts re "fairness"---my lawyer, to shut me up re why,why,why,etc offered to give me case law to read which applies and even went so far as to say even after the divorce is final a spouse can ,if circumsatnces change re health/income,etc go back to court and will not necessarily be summarily tossed out---or to put it as i did with him, "there's really no end to how many times someone can be "F...ed" in a matrimonial case---he just said he's been doing mats as he calls them over thirty years and all he knows is no door is ever permanently closed (maybe) as long as you are both alive---
pretty scary,no?----i have always said marriage should be as difficult as divorce is now and divorce as easy as marriage is now---once again we have it backwards---
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