Rostanzo v. Rostanzo

900 N.E.2d 101, 73 Mass. App. Ct. 588, 2009 Mass. App. LEXIS 100
CourtMassachusetts Appeals Court
DecidedJanuary 29, 2009
DocketNo. 06-P-1953
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 900 N.E.2d 101 (Rostanzo v. Rostanzo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Appeals Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rostanzo v. Rostanzo, 900 N.E.2d 101, 73 Mass. App. Ct. 588, 2009 Mass. App. LEXIS 100 (Mass. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

Perretta, J.

When Stephen Rostanzo (the executor) filed a petition for probate of the will of his father, Nicholas Rostanzo (the decedent), the decedent’s widow, Grazyna Rostanzo (the plaintiff), filed an affidavit of objections and, subsequently, a complaint seeking to invalidate her antenuptial agreement (agreement) with the decedent and to establish a constructive trust over a building owned by a limited liability corporation formed by the decedent during their marriage. The actions were consolidated for trial, after which a judge of the Probate and Family Court voided the agreement and denied the plaintiff’s objections to the decedent’s will and her request for the imposition of a constructive trust. The plaintiff and the executor filed timely cross appeals.

We conclude that the agreement and the decedent’s will control the disposition of his assets.

1. Background. We summarize the relevant facts found by the judge, supplemented by undisputed facts in the record, while reserving certain details for our discussion of the issues presented on these cross appeals.

a. The premarital relationship. In October, 1996, the decedent, an American citizen, met the plaintiff, a Polish national then living in Poland, when the plaintiff was visiting friends in the United States. Although it appears that the decedent was somewhat older than the plaintiff, the plaintiff states that “both [590]*590[had] achieved middle age.” From 1997 through 2001, they maintained a long-distance romantic relationship during which they would visit one another several times each year. During those years, the plaintiff owned and operated two cosmetology businesses and a condominium in Poland and supported her daughter, who was bom of one of her two prior marriages. Sometime in 2000, the plaintiff and the decedent began to discuss marriage and whether they would make their home in Poland or the United States should they decide to marry.

Since the parties intended eventually to marry, the plaintiff, in August, 2001, moved to the United States to live with the decedent in his home in Watertown. Her daughter, then nineteen years of age, thereafter followed and took up residence with them while attending college, for which the decedent paid the tuition.

About four months after the plaintiff’s arrival in the United States, the decedent raised the issue of the agreement with her and suggested that his attorney, David Smith, assist them in preparing such an agreement. Smith had been providing the decedent with advice on his personal real estate holdings and tax-related matters since 1985. The plaintiff and the decedent met with Smith on December 4, 2001, to discuss several matters, including the preparation of the agreement. During this meeting, Smith did not discuss issues relating to the attorney-client privilege or conflicts of interests.2 The judge found that at the time of this meeting, the plaintiff believed that Smith was acting as her attorney as well as the attorney for the decedent and that no interpreter was present at the meeting despite the plaintiff’s difficulties with the English language.

On December 7, 2001, Attorney Smith sent two copies of a draft agreement to the decedent’s home under cover of a letter addressed solely to him. According to the evidence presented, the decedent gave a copy of the draft agreement to the plaintiff “after the holidays.” The plaintiff attempted to translate the draft of the agreement into Polish. About two weeks into January, a friend of [591]*591the plaintiff advised her to retain separate counsel to represent her in the negotiation and execution of the agreement. The friend referred her to Elzbieta Fadrowska, an attorney fluent in Polish but, as found by the judge, without experience in matters of contracts or antenuptial agreements.

Attorney Fadrowska received a copy of Attorney Smith’s draft agreement no later than January 18, 2002, the date upon which she undertook representation of the plaintiff.3 Fadrowska thereafter reviewed each term of the agreement with the plaintiff over the telephone. Following these telephone consultations with the plaintiff, Fadrowska proposed to add certain terms to the agreement pertaining to the parties’ rights upon divorce.

Negotiations between Attorney Smith and Attorney Fadrowska resulted in the addition of a new provision in the agreement. This new provision required the decedent to make a monetary payment to the plaintiff in the event their marriage was terminated by divorce within three years of the marriage. The amount of the payment was dependent upon which party filed for divorce. If the decedent filed for divorce, he was to pay the plaintiff $60,000. Should the plaintiff initiate divorce proceedings, the decedent was to pay her $10,000. The new provision also required that, should the decedent be the party to file for divorce, he maintain a life insurance policy in the amount of $100,000 for the plaintiff’s benefit for a period of five years from the date of entry of a final judgment of divorce.

On January 26, 2002, the plaintiff and decedent, while represented by Attorney Fadrowska and Attorney Smith, signed the agreement in the presence of their respective attorneys. The signed agreement provided in pertinent part:

“Except as otherwise . . . expressly provided [herein], the individual property of each . . . part[y], as specified on a [schedule of assets] attached hereto . . . hereinafter . . . the [Scheduled Property], shall remain and be the sole and exclusive property of the Husband and/or Wife, as appropriate, subject to his or her individual control, use [592]*592and disposition as if he or she were unmarried. Neither party shall acquire, by reason of the marriage, any interest in such Scheduled Property of the other ... or any interest in . . . any income [therefrom] or in the increase in value arising therefrom, or in any proceeds from any disposition thereof. . . .”

The schedules of assets appended to the signed agreement showed that the decedent held real property with a total value of approximately $1,136,000 and personal property, primarily bank accounts, money market accounts, and individual retirement accounts, valued at $196,960. The decedent’s schedule of assets did not reflect the fact that his real estate holdings were subject to mortgage liabilities in the total amount of $400,000, thereby reducing their value to $736,000, and the total value of his estate to about $932,960.

According to the plaintiff’s schedule, she had three assets: a condominium, a bank account, and a 1998 Fiat Punto automobile, all located in Poland. She provided no information as to the value of any of these assets.4 As reflected on the record before us, the decedent provided his schedule of assets to Attorney Fadrowska on January 21, 2002, that is, five days prior to the signing of the agreement.5 The plaintiff provided her schedule of assets to the decedent on the very day that the parties signed the agreement, that is, January 26, 2002.

The agreement also provided that in the event of one party’s death, the other waived “any and all” interest in real estate held by the deceased in his or her sole name or as cotenant with anyone other than the surviving spouse. As pertinent, other provisions of the agreement stated that “[t]he parties . . . shall, at their options, execute . . .

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
900 N.E.2d 101, 73 Mass. App. Ct. 588, 2009 Mass. App. LEXIS 100, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rostanzo-v-rostanzo-massappct-2009.