Divorce Settlement Made in Open Court is Binding

Tennessee case summary on divorce procedure.

Divorce settlement made in open court is binding, even if not reduced to writing.

The husband filed for divorce in September 2022 in Hawkins County, Tennessee.  Trial was set for July 2023, but while waiting to begin, the parties settled.  The trial court found that the agreement was fair and approved it.  But three days later, before it could be reduced to writing, the wife filed a notice of revocation of her consent to the agreement.  Two days later, her attorney was released by the court and the wife was given sixty days to find a new lawyer.  In September, the court held a hearing and held the wife to the earlier agreement.  The wife did not appear at that hearing, and she claimed not to have received notice.  The wife moved to set it aside on those grounds, but this motion was denied.  She then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.  The appeals court first held that the appeal was timely.

On the merits, the wife argued that the agreement was not reduced to writing.  The husband took the position that there was a final agreement, and both parties testified as to their agreement.

The wife cited a 1987 case holding that an oral agreement could be rescinded.  But the Court of Appeals noted an important difference:  Unlike in the 1987 case, the parties had announced their agreement in open court and stipulated to its fairness.  Furthermore, the agreement in this case had been accepted by the court.  For these reasons, the appeals court held that the 1987 case was inapplicable.  For these reasons, it held that the agreement was binding and affirmed the lower court.

The husband did request attorney’s fees for the appeal, but this request was denied.  The opinion of the Court of Appeals was authored by Judge Kristi M. Davis.

No. E2024-00442-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Dec. 20, 2024).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

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