Yahoo News video re the Mccourt's Divorce This case is remarkable the nasty divorce between the Mccourt's who own the Dodgers and whose collective worth is around $1.3 billion. The attorney in the video represents multi millionaire baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez wife which is clear he is really advocating for Alex in the video.
In this case they were married, signed a post nuptial agreement presumably with full disclosure and both having separate attorneys it clearly provided she would receive $65 million in real estate if they separated and that the Dodgers which he was buying or had just bought would remain his and she signed the agreement knowingly and willingly. She was then put on the payroll as CEO for $2 million a year.
However she then had an affair with her bodyguard and driver who worked for the Dodgers violating team policy as well as her marriage vows. Took a two week vacation to France with her subordinate and billed the team for the trip. Was then properly let go for violating team policy of dating a person who she was a direct supervisor of and having personal expenses paid as though they were business ones. She then sued for divorce herself deciding to separate following her affair causing the marital and business problems. However instead of sticking to her agreement which he was not seeking to reduce given her improper actions she is now seeking to void the post nuptial agreement and take half of the team as well given it would have been community property in CA but for the post nuptial agreement and further seeking the absurd sum of $988,000 a month to maintain the insanely pampered life she has says she became accustomed. She had already tried to get the job back as CEO but was denied by the judge as she violated existing team rules.
She has $4 million in savings and $450,000 in cash but says she will run out of money soon as she is unable to live without a private jet, a full time hair stylist, five star hotels and hundreds of thousands in clothing. As his attorneys properly point out she signed the agreement and has plenty of resources to live off of and can even rent out the properties if she chose to do so or could sell them.
Most of the money had been earned in Boston which was not a community property jurisdiction.
It will be interesting to see how the judge rules although given the facts of this case it would seem that post nuptial agreements have now value or use if she gets the half share of the team after this situation.
A good article which summarizes the facts written by Lawrence Delevingne for the Business Insider - Law Review section
In Florida pre and post nuptial agreements are controlled by Florida Statute 732.702 the text of which can be seen by clicking here. There agreement was a post nuptial agreement one that was done after they had been married had it occurred in Florida it would be subject to subsections 2 and 3 of the statute that merely provide that disclosure is required. In this case she was not claiming she had no idea regarding what the Dodgers was worth or there was any lack of disclosure but basically seeking to change the terms of the voluntary agreement after the fact. In order to uphold contract law I think the judge should find for him unless disclosure was not provided.
Just as the court had concluded that the bankruptcy court was pre cluded in the Anna Nicole Smith case as that would have provided a 2nd bite at the apple so to speak and would have resulted in jurisdiction shopping this would be a similar thing of allowing people to be given millions of dollars then whenever they wanted they could seek to invalidate the agreement merely because they could subsequently get more money. While she would not get half of the estate without a portion of the Dodgers the contract she be followed as long as there are two witnesses and she voluntarily and knowingly agreed to the terms that were in the agreement in 2004.
Information regarding post nuptial law in several states can be seen by clicking here