A foreign citizen wants to enter a contract to sell some goods. They would like to retain you to complete the transaction and collect the monies to be paid by the local buyer. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are involved. I suspect that by now, every attorney has received this basic email scam (or any number of variations) at least once, if not hundreds of times. At some point, they all end the same. The buyer sends you, the local attorney, a check or wire transfer. Upon receipt, the attorney is asked to pay the funds over to the foreign citizen. The attorney can keep a piece as a fee. After ..read more

Under the parties’ divorce settlement agreement, the parents were not obligated to share their daughter’s sorority costs whether those costs were viewed as a college expenses or as extracurricular expenses. So held Nassau County Family Court Support Magistrate Sondra M. Toscano in her July 7th decision in Matter of C.A.B. v. D.S.B. There, the parties’ 2021 Stipulation of Settlement provided in relevant part: The parties agree and acknowledge that they shall contribute to the costs and expenses associated with each child’s college or post high school vocational education, with the Husband payi ..read more

In his June 13th decision in E.J. v. M.J., Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Edmund M. Dane resolved the complex financial issues arising when a divorce action is commenced after a child begins attending a private university, but before the child turns 21 or graduates. The fact pattern presents a blend of Equitable Distribution and child support add-on issues. Here, the parties were married in 1997 and had two children born in 2001: a son who by the time of the decision had turned 21 and had just graduated from Quinnipiac College and a daughter with developmental disabilities for whom the p ..read more

A wife commenced a New York County action to set aside three trusts created by her husband. The wife alleged that the trusts were created in an effort to ensure that the wife would be deprived of her fair and equitable share of assets in the event of a divorce. In fact, the husband had recently commenced a divorce action in Suffolk County. In its June 20, 2023, decision in Paulson v. Paulson, the Appellate Division, First Department reversed an Order of Supreme Court New York County Justice Louis L. Nock which granted the husband’s motion to close the courtroom for oral argument on the motion ..read more

In its decision this month in Vaysburd v. Vaysburd, the Appellate Division Second Department reminded us that once a parenting stipulation or order is entered, child support will not be affected until the stipulation or order is modified. This is true, even if the support award is made in the same divorce action in which the parenting stipulation was entered. The couple, married in 1997 and had a son and a daughter. They filed for divorce in 2008. In March 2010 the parties executed a custody and parental access stipulation, agreeing on joint legal custody with residential custody going to the ..read more

For 13 years, Mr. De Niro and Ms. Hightower failed to account annually for their commingled separate and marital property when making investments or acquiring assets as required by their 2004 Prenuptial Agreement (PNA). In effect, the decisions in their 2018 divorce action have now interpreted this annual accounting requirement as an agreement to forever arbitrate and not litigate the marital and separate property issues of the divorce. In his March 15, 2023 decision in Anonymous v. Anonymous, Supreme Court New York County Justice Ariel D. Chesler directed the parties to immediately provide t ..read more

What is the significance in a divorce settlement agreement of the parents’ decision to apply the child support formula to all of the parents’ income in excess of the statutory “cap?” How will such an agreement affect a subsequent modification proceeding? Such was the issue addressed in last week’s decision of the Appellate Division, Second Department, in Matter of Monaco v. Monaco, 2023 NY Slip Op 01091, 2023 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 1093, 2023 WL 2290584 (2nd Dept. 2023). The parties were married in 1996 and have three children. In 2013, the parties executed a stipulation of settlement that was ..read more

Two days before the parties were married in February, 2011, they executed a prenuptial agreement. In it the wife accepted an agreed-upon maintenance provision. The husband commenced a divorce action in 2019. The wife counterclaimed, seeking an award of maintenance and a judgment setting aside the agreement as invalid. The husband moved for summary judgment requesting the court deem the agreement valid. The wife opposed the husband’s motion and cross-moved for an award of temporary maintenance and counsel fees. Acting Clinton County Supreme Court Justice Keith M. Bruno partially granted the hu ..read more

The petitioner, a resident of Bronx County who was born in the State of Georgia, asked the Court for orders reflecting “their” name and sex designation changes, on petitioner’s New York identification, as well as on their Georgia birth certificate. In his July 19, 2022, decision in Matter of N.K., New York City Civil Court Judge Jeffrey S. Zellan granted the petition to change the name on the New York State and City -issued identification, as well as on the petitioner’s Georgia birth certificate. Judge Zellan also granted the application to change the sex designation on any and all New York St ..read more

Obstreperous may be defined as stubbornly resistant to control. In divorce litigation, sometimes it just doesn’t pay to be difficult. In its decision of March 22, 2022, the Appellate Division, First Department in Gorman v. Gorman, upheld the lower court’s determination that the wife waived her interest in the shopping center by her refusal to sign an assignment agreement as required. incident to the divorce, the wife was to have received half of the marital interest in RS Shopping Center Associates LLP. The judgment of divorce provided that the wife was to sign an assignment agreement to equal ..read more