Grunfeld v. Grunfeld

161 A.D.2d 973, 557 N.Y.S.2d 965, 1990 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6468
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided May 24, 1990·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

Casey, J.

Cross appeals from a judgment of the Supreme Court (Ingraham, J.) ordering equitable distribution of the parties’ marital property, entered October 5, 1988 in Cortland County, upon a decision of the court.

On the prior appeal in this case, we held that "[a]n open-court stipulation of settlement in a matrimonial action purporting to equitably distribute the parties’ marital property, which is based in part upon erroneous findings of the trial court as to the value of certain marital property, and which results in an award of substantially all of the marital assets to one party while burdening the other party with virtually all of the marital debt, is patently unconscionable” (123 AD2d 64, 65). Since we found the record to be insufficiently developed on the issue of unconscionability, the matter was remitted for a hearing on plaintiffs cross motion to vacate the stipulation. In an oral decision at the close of the parties’ proof upon remittal, Supreme Court found that Trial Term’s original valuation of the marital assets was erroneous in two respects, which caused Trial Term’s findings to be "some $40,000 off base”. Concluding that no rational person would execute an agreement based upon figures that contained a $40,000 error, Supreme Court vacated the stipulation and a judgment was entered accordingly. We reverse.

Although the existence of errors in the original findings and the magnitude of those errors

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Grunfeld v. Grunfeld, 161 A.D.2d 973, 557 N.Y.S.2d 965, 1990 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6468 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1990).

161 A.D.2d 973 (Grunfeld v. Grunfeld) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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