REGINA TISIKER MARGULIES, APPELLANT,
v.
MARTIN Z. MARGULIES, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 1986-06-24
Nos. 84-1142, 84-2006
Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and DANIEL S. PEARSON and JORGENSON, JJ.
491 So. 2d 581 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1986) Positive Treatment
Cited by 4 cases

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Synopsis

A Florida appellate court upheld the validity of an antenuptial agreement and the child support award derived from it, rejecting the wife's contentions that the agreement violated public policy and that disparate support amounts for two children constituted an abuse of discretion. The court determined that the wife freely entered the agreement with full disclosure and that the characterization of payments as 'child support' versus 'alimony' was primarily a tax-motivated allocation agreed to by the parties.


Holding

The antenuptial agreement is valid and enforceable because the wife freely and knowingly entered into it after full disclosure and negotiations; the agreement does not violate public policy even if the alimony is arguably inadequate, as she was free to accept any amount; the $50,000 provision was not intended as child support but rather as alimony with tax-motivated characterization; and the trial court's award of $15,000 child support for Michael was not an abuse of discretion, as that amount was adequate and was itself the contingent reduction amount for David in the agreement.


Headnotes

[1] An antenuptial agreement is enforceable when entered into by parties with full financial disclosure, through counsel, and without coercion or undue influence.

[2] An antenuptial agreement provision that labels a payment as child support but is structured to be forfeited upon the custodial parent's remarriage or relocation is legall…

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Key Quotes

“That Regina's requirements at the time of the breakup of the marriage were allegedly far greater than they were at the time of the agreement, although perhaps understandable, gives her no ground to repudiate her agreement.”

Establishes that changed circumstances after signing do not justify repudiation of a freely-entered antenuptial agreement.

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Facts & Procedural History

Regina Tisiker and Martin Margulies began an intimate relationship in 1978; Regina became pregnant and gave birth to their son David in October 1979 w…

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Opinion of the Court
DANIEL S. PEARSON, Judge.

DANIEL S. PEARSON, Judge.

This appeal is from (1) a final judgment of dissolution upholding the validity of an antenuptial agreement against the wife’s contention that the agreement was against public policy in several respects and that she was coerced into signing it and (2) an order awarding support for the younger child of the marriage in a vastly different amount — $15,000 per year — than that provided for the older child — $50,000 per year — in the antenuptial agreement. We affirm the final judgment of dissolution and the child support order. Regina Tisiker and Martin Margulies met in 1978. She was a flight attendant about to be divorced from her husband; he was a very wealthy businessman. They began an intimate relationship, and by February 1979, Regina learned that she was pregnant. Regina was determined to have the child even though she and Marty1 were not married and Marty was resisting marriage. In October of that year, a son, David, was bom. During the ensuing months, Marty continued the relationship with Regina and began one with the child. In May or June 1980, Marty proposed marriage as well as an antenuptial agreement. He explained the reasons for both proposals:

“I told her I had a change of heart.... I felt that the child was mine and that I had a change of heart and that I think we should give it a try and get together and try to make it.

“I wanted to be a father to my child and to give him a family life....

“Give him my name and in order to do it I feel we should make a trial at being

married. That was in my mind_

“What was in my mind also was to protect what I worked for all my life, from a marriage that was not exactly started on the foundation that a marriage should be. That is, love and romance and that type of thing.”

Whether Regina believed that the signing of the antenuptial agreement was a mandatory condition precedent to Marty’s marrying her and whether Marty would have refused to marry Regina had she refused to sign the agreement are questions that were not openly discussed at or before the time of the event. There was, however, substantial competent evidence to establish that Regina, even if anxious to legitimize the child, entered into the agreement with her eyes wide open — after a complete disclosure of Marty’s financial condition, negotiations through counsel resulting in modifications in the agreement, and, for all that appears and could have been found by the fact-finder, willing to forego the marriage if the agreement did not satisfy her requirements. That Regina’s requirements at the time of the breakup of the marriage were allegedly far greater than they were at the time of the agreement, although perhaps understandable, gives her no ground to repudiate her agreement. The trial court’s conclusion that the agreement was not coerced, the result of undue influence, or otherwise unlawfully procured is amply supported by the record.

Regina contends, however, that the agreement is void against public policy since its inadequate alimony provision had the impermissible effect of making divorce a financially painless option for Marty and since it arbitrarily reduced David’s support to an inadequate amount if Regina remarried or moved from Dade County.2

The argument that the antenuptial agreement is against public policy because the alimony provided therein is allegedly inadequate is totally without merit. As we have already said, Regina was found to have freely entered into the agreement after full disclosure and was free to accept any amount of alimony, even an arguably inadequate amount.

The argument that it would offend against public policy to reduce a child’s support merely because his mother remarried or moved her residence is, unfortunately for Regina, based on the premise that the $50,000 per year denominated as child support was in fact intended to be child support. By finding the antenuptial agreement to be fully enforceable, the trial court necessarily rejected this public policy argument. The rejection obviously stemmed from the trial court’s implicit determination that the provision reducing the $50,000 “child support” to $15,000 in the event of Regina’s remarriage or move was not a forfeiture of child support, but was in reality a perfectly permissible forfeiture of alimony. That implicit determination is amply supported by substantial evidence, indeed uncontradicted evidence, that the true purpose of fixing the child support sum at twice the amount of alimony was to create tax benefits for Regina. The evidence reflects that this arbitrary division between alimony and child support was negotiated by Regina as a tax advantage to her and was never intended to establish either her alimony needs or David’s needs for child support.

The premise upon which Regina bases her attack on the order awarding her $15,000 for the support of the second child, Michael, is again that David is receiving $50,000 in child support, and thus, the grossly disparate award for Michael (younger by two years, but in all other respects the same) is an abuse of discretion. The problem with the attack is, as we have explained, that the child support provision in the antenuptial agreement was not intended by the parties to fix David’s child support needs and most assuredly should not be used as the model for, or even as any evidence of, Michael’s needs. Indeed, in addition to the other evidence supporting the trial court’s determination that $15,000 per annum was an adequate amount of child support for Michael, the fact that the agreement itself provided that David’s child support would be reduced to $15,000 if Regina remarried or moved is powerful evidence that Regina herself believed this amount to be adequate.

While child support awards in equal amounts would likely avoid the parade of envisioned psychological horribles which, Regina contends, might result from treating siblings differently, the trial court, having implicitly found that only $15,000 of the $50,000 payment provided in the antenup-tial agreement was child support, had no equalizing to do. However, even if no such finding had been made, the trial court was not compelled by any identifiable public policy to award Michael $50,000 so as to make his support equal to that provided for David in the antenuptial agreement between the parties.

Affirmed.

. Throughout the proceedings below, and in the briefs, the parties refer to Mr. Margulies as Marty.

. The specific provision in issue provided that in the event of divorce, Regina was to be paid the sum of $25,000 per year as alimony and $50,000 per year as child support of David. The alimony was to continue for a maximum period of seventeen years or until Regina died, remarried, or moved from Dade County, whichever first occurred. Also, in the event of Regina’s remarriage or removal from Dade County, the child support payments were to be reduced to $15,000 per year.

Dissent
SCHWARTZ, Chief Judge

SCHWARTZ, Chief Judge

(dissenting in part).

I agree with the majority’s analysis of the issues before us and its disposition of the attack upon the antenuptial agreement.

I would reverse the child support award, however, simply because, in the light of the father’s monumental standard of living and prosperity,1 in which his children are entitled to share, $15,000 per year is so unreasonably low as to represent a clear abuse of discretion. See, e.g., Peak v. Peak, 411 So. 2d 325 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982); Bordman v. Bordman, 231 So. 2d 543 (Fla.3d DCA 1970).

. According to his own figures, Margulies’s net worth is at least $50,000,000. The yearly child support award thus represents .03 percent of that amount.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Margulies v. Margulies, 506 So. 2d 1093 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987)
    …PER CURIAM. Following an earlier opinion in this matter reported in Margulies v. Margulies, 491 So. 2d 581 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986), the matter came on for hearing to determine the amount of fees that should be awarded, pursuant to section 61.16, Florida Statutes (1985), to counsel for the unsuccessful party (who in this instance happens to be the wife) in the…
  • Barney Boardman v. Boardman, 526 So. 2d 218 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988)
    …PER CURIAM. Affirmed. Kreiser v. Kreiser, 505 So. 2d 40, 41 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987); Margulies v. Margulies, 491 So. 2d 581 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987).…

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