Postnuptial Agreement Ruled Valid and Supported Lawyer Fees

Tennessee case summary on post-nuptial agreements in divorce.

Belinda Butler Pandey v. Aneel Madhukar Pandey

The husband and wife in this Davidson County, Tennessee, case had been married for 15 years when the wife filed for divorce in 2013.  They had three children, two of whom had special needs.  In 2011, the parties had entered into a postnuptial agreement, and the wife asked for the property to be distributed in accordance with that agreement.

The husband argued that the agreement should not be enforced because of fraud, bad faith, and other reasons.  The trial court ruled in a summary judgment that the agreement was enforceable.

Other proceedings were held, including the husband’s motion to have the judge removed from the case.  This motion was denied, and the court distributed the property according to the agreement.  The agreement also called for the successful party to receive attorney’s fees, and the trial court awarded these to the wife.

The husband then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.  After addressing some procedural issues, the appeals court turned to the award of attorney fees.

The husband argued that the wife was not entitled to attorney fees, because she also contested a portion of the agreement.  He argued that in order to collect fees, the wife had to agree to the provisions of the agreement in their totality.

But the appeals court reviewed the record and found that the wife was consistently seeking to enforce the agreement, while the husband repeatedly contested it.  Also, since her only objections related to child support, the appeals court held that this wasn’t really properly part of the agreement.

The appeals court also addressed the husband’s recusal motion, and held that this motion had properly been denied.

Finally, the court turned to the issue of attorney fees for the appeal.  But the Court of Appeals denied the wife’s request for additional fees.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s judgment.

No. M2016-01919-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Oct. 16, 2017).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see The Tennessee Divorce Process: How Divorces Work Start to Finish.