After twenty-nine years of marriage, Robert and Mary Lou Tuttle were divorced. T
ID: 1167128 • Letter: A
Question
After twenty-nine years of marriage, Robert and Mary Lou Tuttle were divorced. They admitted in court that before they were married, they had signed a prenuptial agreement. They agreed that the agreement had stated that each would keep his or her own property and anything derived from that property. Robert came into the marriage owning farmland, while Mary Lou owned no real estate. During the marriage, ten different parcels of land, totaling about six hundred acres, were acquired, and two corporations, Tuttle Grain, Inc., and Tuttle Farms, Inc., were formed. A copy of the prenuptial agreement could not be found. Can the court enforce the agreement without a writing? After twenty-nine years of marriage, Robert and Mary Lou Tuttle were divorced. They admitted in court that before they were married, they had signed a prenuptial agreement. They agreed that the agreement had stated that each would keep his or her own property and anything derived from that property. Robert came into the marriage owning farmland, while Mary Lou owned no real estate. During the marriage, ten different parcels of land, totaling about six hundred acres, were acquired, and two corporations, Tuttle Grain, Inc., and Tuttle Farms, Inc., were formed. A copy of the prenuptial agreement could not be found. Can the court enforce the agreement without a writing?Explanation / Answer
Only for the reason that the copy of a prenuptial agreement cannot be found does not mean that no notice of the existence of this agreement will be taken by the court once adequate secondary evidence can be located, which can be in the form of a witness or attorney testimony. From this the court may determine the existence of an original signed agreement (which had existed at one time) and the court may then determine from it whether the terms of the said agreement can be enforced or not.