Wife asks for house worth $2.3 million...what are the husband's obligations?

Wife asks for house worth $2.3 million - Court orders Husband to build house worth about $100,000

In a recent case that reached the Superior Court of Pennsylvania (the appellate court), a wife argued that her former husband was not living up to the terms of their property settlement agreement. The husband, of course, vehemently disagreed and the appeal.

According to the court’s opinion, available on the website of the Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System http://www.aopc.org/OpPosting/Superior/out/a34036_05.pdf, Barbara and Gary Herzog agreed that as part of their marriage settlement agreement (dated September 2000), Gary would build Barbara a modular home of her choice, including amenities such as fencing and landscaping. (As a general rule, I prefer to keep these type of ambiguous terms out of settlement agreements because I believe such arrangements can only lead to further arguments, and possibly, costly litigation. I prefer to draft agreements that end the matter with finality without the need for much further consultation and agreement with the person you are divorcing.)

Barbara first selected a home worth $75,000 and chose various amenities worth about $35,000, for a total price to Gary of $110,000. However, Barbara became dissatisfied with the construction progress and began to look at other homes, worth in the $135,000 to $145,000 range. Gary balked at these prices. Barbara then hired another contractor for her original choice of a modular home and proceeded to pick out improvements worth approximately $2,300,000, such as $893,000 worth of fencing and $950,000 worth of landscaping. Gary apparently became appalled at the exploding price tag and filed a petition in the court to stop what he apparently felt was a process that had snowballed out of control from the original agreement. Both parties argued various provisions of contract law and the trial court ultimately ordered Gary to build Barbara a house consistent with the first arrangement – the $75,000 home with the $35,000 worth of improvements. Barbara appealed to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, but the court agreed with Gary. So, unless there is further litigation, it looks like Barbara’s house, with the amenities, will be in the $100,000-$110,000 price range, rather than $2,300,000.

This case most likely involves many other issues and facts and I based my synopsis only on what was available in the court opinion. However, for one party to believe that she was getting a house worth over two millions dollars while the other party believed he was only obligated to spend in the $100,000, there must have existed some significant lack of communication. Additionally, it is now almost 2006 and this woman is no closer to having a home built than she was in September 2000, when the agreement was drafted.

Perhaps a better strategy would have been to negotiate a sum of money that Husband was to pay Wife and then Wife could purchase her own home, without any more consultation with Husband — that would have hopefully provided more finality to both parties and perhaps they could both have moved on with their lives rather than be embroiled in expensive and time consuming litigation for five years.

Please note that these articles are intended for information only and cannot substitute for specific legal advice, tailored to your individual situation.