Children of divorcing parents do not sign their parents’ separation agreements. But if issues of child support and custody are in play, those same agreements will contain paragraph after paragraph about those very children. Which begs the question: Are children of divorcing parents recognized as third-party beneficiaries of their parents’ separation agreements, divorce decrees, etc.? According to a recent decision of the Surrogate’s Court in Oneida County, New York, it would be unwise to assume that the answer is a definitive “yes.”

In Matter of Panella, 2022 NY Slip Op 22293 (Surrogate’s Court, Oneida County, Sept. 21, 2022), two children (Nicole and Stephen), whose father, Richard, had died, petitioned to enforce a provision in their parents’ separation agreement, incorporated into a divorce decree, which “obligated their father to bequeath 100% of the value of his estate to them.” Richard bequeathed his entire estate to his second wife, Deborah, who was not the children’s mother. The children called their natural mother, Carol (i.e., Richard’s ex-wife) as their “main witness.”