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A CONFLICT BETWEEN TWO PROVISIONS OF THE POSTNUPTIAL AGREEMENT REQUIRED A TRIAL TO RESOLVE (FIRST DEPT). ​

The First Department, reversing (modifying) Supreme Court, determined there was a conflict between two provisions of the postnuptial agreement which could only be resolved by a trial:

“When parties set down their agreement in a clear, complete document, their writing should as a rule be enforced according to its terms” … . If a contract’s provisions are subject to more than one or conflicting reasonable interpretations, the agreement will be considered ambiguous, requiring a trial on the parties’ intent … . Here, the language of the agreement allows for more than one reasonable interpretation of the parties’ intentions when they entered into the agreement. The language regarding distribution of the parties’ assets is specifically contingent on the occurrence of the operative event otherwise without force or effect. This conflicts with further language that requires the wife to assume certain debt within 30 days of the execution of the agreement. These interrelated provisions are ambiguous as they are “reasonably or fairly susceptible of different interpretations or may have two or more different meanings” (id. [internal quotation marks omitted]). Accordingly, the parties’ intent underpinning these conflicting provisions must be addressed at trial. Bich v Bich, 2023 NY Slip Op 04918. First De[t 10-3-23

Practice Practice: Conflicting provisions in an agreement render the agreement ambiguous requiring a trial.

 

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