In its August 19, 2015 decision in Hof v. Hof, the Second Department, almost matter-of-factly, addressed a number of pendente lite and pre-nuptial agreement issues.

To begin, the Court affirmed the determination of Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice John B. Collins, that after a hearing upheld the parties’ prenuptial agreement. By that agreement, at least in part, the parties had waived interests in each other’s pensions. Contrary to the wife’s contention, that mutual waiver was not unconscionable, and was not necessarily one-sided when it was made, as both parties had accumulated approximately three years in their respective pensions at that time. Moreover, the Court stated that the husband’s threat to cancel their wedding if the agreement was not signed did not establish duress.

The Second Department modified Justice Collins’ order insofar as it deviated from the presumptive temporary maintenance formula. Domestic Relations Law § 236(B)(5-a) sets forth formulas for the courts to apply to the parties’ reported income in order to determine the presumptively correct award of temporary maintenance.

Here, the Justice Collins had downwardly deviated from the presumptive award by awarding the wife the sum of only $1,500 per month in pendente lite maintenance. While a court may deviate from the presumptive award if that presumptive award is unjust or inappropriate, the Second Department here held, however, that it was not proper to so deviate. It was an insufficient basis to deviate that the husband “was maintaining the marital residence where he was living after the wife vacated the marital residence with the children, and the fact that the wife stayed home during a portion of the marriage to take care of the children.” Such did not render the presumptive award of pendente lite maintenance unjust or inappropriate. Accordingly, the Second Department held that it must modify the award of pendente lite maintenance to provide the wife with the presumptive award of $2,549.70 per month.

On the other hand, Justice Collins was not required to apply the Child Support Standards Act to determine the award of pendente lite child support. In that regard, any perceived inequity in the temporary child support award can best be remedied by a speedy trial, at which the parties’ financial circumstances can be fully explored.

Finally, the Second increased the interim award of counsel fees from $2,500 to $20,000, the full amount of counsel fees incurred by the wife to date related to the divorce issues. The husband was the monied spouse and, thus, there was a rebuttable presumption that the wife was entitled to an award of attorneys’ fees. At the time the wife moved for her award of attorneys’ fees, the attorneys’ fees she had already incurred amounted to approximately $25,000. Domestic Relations Law §237 does not provide for an award of counsel fees in actions to enforce or rescind prenuptial agreements, and approximately $5,000 of the $25,000 in fees that she actually incurred were attributable to challenging the prenuptial agreement. Therefore, at this juncture, the Second Department held the wife should be awarded interim attorneys’ fees in the sum of $20,000, rather than only $2,500.

Arnold B. Firestone, of Firestone & Breud, PLLC, of Commack, represented the wife. C. Donald Shlimbaum, of Shlimbaum & Shlimbaum, of Central Islip, represented the husband.