Chubbuck v. Lake, S06F0676.
| Decision Date | 02 October 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. S06F0676.,S06F0676. |
| Citation | 281 Ga. 218,635 S.E.2d 764 |
| Parties | CHUBBUCK v. LAKE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Bruce Fielding Morriss, Daniel Shim, Atlanta, for Appellant.
Rosemary Smith Armstrong, Atlanta, for Appellee.
Appellant Pamela Chubbuck (Wife) and appellee Thomas Richard Lake (Husband) executed a premarital agreement on July 9, 2001, married five days later, separated three months thereafter, and obtained a judgment and decree of divorce in July 2003 following a jury trial. The judgment incorporating the jury verdict awarded the marital home and its contents to Wife and required her to pay Husband $41,000. We granted Wife's application for discretionary review of the divorce judgment in accordance with this Court's Family Law Pilot Project pursuant to which this Court grants all non-frivolous applications seeking discretionary appeal from a final judgment and decree of divorce. See Wright v. Wright, 277 Ga. 133, 587 S.E.2d 600 (2003).
Prior to trial, the trial court ruled the parties' premarital agreement was unenforceable because it did not meet the statutory requirement that it be witnessed by two persons, having been signed only by the parties and the notary public before whom they executed the document.1 The trial court ruled the unenforceable agreement could not be introduced into evidence and the jury would be instructed there was no enforceable agreement. Over Wife's objection, the trial court permitted testimony concerning the existence and contents of the premarital agreement, with the understanding that it would not be referred to as a premarital agreement but as a document the parties had executed prior to their marriage. Pursuant to the ruling, Husband and Wife testified that the premarital document provided for Husband to receive a minimum of $41,000 should the parties divorce. No instruction was given the jury concerning the unenforceability of the document and when the jury inquired during deliberations whether the jury could use the parties' testimony about the written document's provision of $41,000 to Husband upon divorce, the trial court responded affirmatively.
1. The main issue on appeal is whether the trial court erred when it allowed testimony concerning the contents of the premarital agreement that had been ruled void and unenforceable. We have been unable to find a case in which an antenuptial agreement made in contemplation of divorce has been ruled void and unenforceable for a reason other than failure to live up to the criteria set out by this Court in Scherer v. Scherer, 249 Ga. 635(2), 292 S.E.2d 662 (1982). Where, using the Scherer factors, a trial court determines an antenuptial agreement is void and unenforceable, the agreement's terms are not incorporated into the final judgment and decree of divorce entered by the trial court (see Alexander v. Alexander, 279 Ga. 116, 610 S.E.2d 48 (2005)), and the contents of the agreement are not considered by the fact-finder. Cf. Corbett v. Corbett, 280 Ga. 369, 370, 628 S.E.2d 585 (2006). Under the unusual circumstances of this case which limit this Court to review the effect of a legal ruling but not the merits of...
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...is consistent with the standards governing the enforcement of antenuptial agreements that prevail throughout most of the nation today."23 In Chubbuck, although we noted that the issue whether OCGA § 19-3-63 applied to prenuptial agreements settling alimony was raised before the trial court,......
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...in the instruction given by the probate court. Morrison v. Morrison, 282 Ga. 866, 867(3), 655 S.E.2d 571 (2008); Chubbuck v. Lake, 281 Ga. 218, 219(2), 635 S.E.2d 764 (2006); Coile v. Gamble, 270 Ga. 521, 522(2), 510 S.E.2d 828 Case No. S08X1390 7. The enumerations of error in the cross-app......
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