In Re Estate of Hartman

582 A.2d 648, 399 Pa. Super. 386, 1990 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2649
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 10, 1990
Docket2509 and 3037
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 582 A.2d 648 (In Re Estate of Hartman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Estate of Hartman, 582 A.2d 648, 399 Pa. Super. 386, 1990 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2649 (Pa. 1990).

Opinions

HUDOCK, Judge:

These consolidated appeals are from final orders of the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County, one ordering Floyd G. Hartman, (“Hartman”), to vacate the residence owned by the estate of Mildred E. Hartman, and one granting a stay of said order pending appeal. We affirm the order to vacate and vacate the order granting a stay.

Mildred E. Hartman, (the “decedent”), died testate on September 29, 1988, survived by Hartman, her second husband. A codicil to the decedent’s will provided that Hartman was permitted to continue residing in the home owned by the decedent for six months following her death. After the six months had passed, the codicil directed that the house and its contents were to be sold by the executors of her estate, (“the Executors”).

On March 30, 1989, the Executors filed a petition requesting that Hartman be ordered to vacate the premises so that it could be sold in conformity with the instructions in the codicil to the will. On June 19, 1989, a hearing was held on the petition to vacate. As part of their case in chief, the Executors entered into evidence an antenuptial agreement [390]*390signed by the decedent and Hartman on March 23, 1970. According to this agreement, the parties each waived, relinquished and released all rights against the estate of the other by reason of their marriage. The agreement also explicitly stated that each party had made a complete disclosure to the other of his or her financial condition and that each had the benefit of legal advice prior to its execution. At the hearing Hartman wished to testify that the antenuptial agreement was invalid. The trial court, however, disqualified such testimony pursuant to the Dead Man’s Act, 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 5930.

By Opinion and Order dated August 16, 1989, the trial court held the antenuptial agreement valid and directed Hartman to vacate the property consistent with the dece-' dent’s last will and testament, taking one-half of the proceeds upon the sale of the home. On September 14, 1989, Hartman filed a Notice of Appeal from this Order, as well as an Application for Stay of the Lower Court Order Pending Appeal. On October 11, 1989, the trial court granted Hartman’s Application for Stay. On November 9, 1989, the Executors filed a Notice of Appeal of the October 11 stay order. By stipulation of the parties and approval of this court, the two appeals were consolidated for argument.

Hartman first claims that the trial court erred in upholding the validity of the antenuptial agreement. He claims that the agreement is invalid due to its failure to contain a reasonable provision for him, the lack of full and fair disclosure, the absence of a knowing waiver of statutory rights, fraud, and failure of consideration.

It is well-settled law in Pennsylvania that an ante-nuptial agreement is presumptively valid and binding upon the parties thereto. In re Hillegass Estate, 431 Pa. 144, 150, 244 A.2d 672, 675 (1968). In Hillegass Estate, supra, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court set forth the heavy burden a party seeking to invalidate an antenuptial agreement must carry:

The person seeking to nullify or avoid or circumvent the Agreement has the burden of proving the invalidity of [391]*391the Agreement by clear and convincing evidence that the deceased spouse at the time of the Agreement made neither (a) a reasonable provision for the intended spouse, nor (b) a full and fair disclosure of his (or her) worth.

Id., 431 Pa. at 144, 244 A.2d at 675.

In the recently decided Simeone v. Simeone, 380 Pa.Super. 37, 551 A.2d 219 (1988), app. granted, 522 Pa. 584, 559 A.2d 528 (1989), this court, citing the plurality opinion of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Estate of Geyer, 516 Pa. 492, 533 A.2d 423 (1987), explained that the Hillegass test provides that if either (but not necessarily both) of the above requirements are met the antenuptial agreement is valid. More importantly, in Simeone this court held that the concept of full and fair disclosure encompasses not only disclosure of assets but also disclosure of statutory rights. Thus, to prove the antenuptial agreement invalid in this case, Hartman had the burden of showing by clear and convincing evidence that at the time of the agreement the decedent made neither a reasonable provision for him, nor a full and fair disclosure of her worth and the statutory rights being waived.

The antenuptial agreement at issue did not contain a provision for Hartman; as stated above, the agreement merely stated the parties’ desire to prevent their rights, arising from their marriage, from interfering with their individual properties and their estates. Thus, the antenuptial agreement at issue is valid only if a full and fair disclosure of the decedent’s financial condition and the statutory rights being waived by Hartman was made.

At the June 19 hearing on the petition to vacate, Hartman called the scrivener of the agreement, Benjamin M. Quigg, Jr., Esquire, to testify as his witness. Quigg testified that at a March 10, 1970 meeting prior to the execution of the antenuptial agreement the parties disclosed their assets to one another. Quigg also had prepared a document memorializing his meeting with the parties. This document stated that he had suggested that the parties write down the properties which each had disclosed to the other. While [392]*392such a writing was never created, each party later signed the antenuptial agreement which clearly stated that “Each has made a complete disclosure to the other of his or her financial condition.”

While disclosure between the parties need not be exact, it must be precise enough so as not to obscure the general financial resources of the parties. Geyer, supra. Hartman alleges that the failure of the parties to reduce to writing their respective financial disclosures clearly and convincingly establishes that no adequate disclosure was made. Such a proposition is not supported by Pennsylvania case law. On the contrary, Pennsylvania cases have found adequate disclosure of assets without their reduction to writing. See, e.g., Nigro v. Nigro, 371 Pa.Super. 625, 538 A.2d 910 (1988); In re Hillegass Estate, supra. Indeed, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has found adequate disclosure even in situations where, unlike the present case, the agreement does not recite that full disclosure was made. Thus, the antenuptial agreement in the present case provided for a full and fair disclosure of the general finances of the parties.

Hartman next claims a lack of disclosure of the statutory rights which he waived by signing the agreement. The record does not support such an assertion. Rather, the record reflects that the initial draft of the agreement provided for the waiver of statutory rights by only Hartman and not the decedent. Indeed, the March 10 meeting that occurred between Mr. Quigg and the parties was a direct result of Hartman’s insistence that the decedent also waive any rights in his estate. Mr. Quigg also testified that each paragraph of the agreement was reviewed, in layman’s language, with Hartman, including the provision that he would be giving up any rights to his intended spouse’s property.

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In Re Estate of Hartman
582 A.2d 648 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1990)

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Bluebook (online)
582 A.2d 648, 399 Pa. Super. 386, 1990 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2649, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-estate-of-hartman-pa-1990.