We write to call to the attention of your readers a significant decision issued three days after the publication of our recent article, ‘Downward Modification in a Troubled Economy‘ (Aug. 10, page 9, col. 1).
The Law Journal reported in “Housing Bust Ruled No Cause to Upset Child Support Pact,” (Aug. 14, page 1) on the decision Deabreu v. Deabreu, NYLJ, (Aug. 14, page 43, col. 1). In Deabreu, the husband and wife had agreed, in a 2006, stipulation of settlement (incorporated, but not merged, into the judgment of divorce), that the husband would pre-pay 15 years of child support for the parties’ four children (set at $535,000, pursuant to the stipulation) by yielding to the wife his $535,000 share of the parties’ $1.45 million equity in the marital residence (as calculated in the stipulation). When the house was sold two years later, in a less robust housing market, however, the net proceeds of the sale were far below the anticipated $1.45 million.
