Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Divorce
When property is discovered after a Florida marital settlement agreement has been signed, is this grounds to set aside the marital settlement agreement? The answer depends on the circumstances surrounding the discovery - could the existence of the property been confirmed if the complaining party had investigated this before signing the agreement? Did the other party fraudulently conceal the existence of the property? Overlooked property was an issue in the case Maradona v. Villafañe, 3D23-2085 (Fla. 3d DCA September 10, 2025).
The parties were married in Argentina in 1989 and divorced there in 2003. In 2013, they entered a marital settlement property which divided all of their property between them. A pertinent part of the agreement stated that all property disclosed in the agreement:
have been the only ones comprising the undivided assets of husband and wife, and that others that could have comprised it have been divested as a whole and their price received in halves. Moreover, they declare that they have been completely compensated between themselves with regard to the potential differences that might exist with regard to the assets allocated to each. Consequently, they expressly waive the right to make a claim with regard to the settlement and allotting the assets comprising the community property.
In 2014, the former husband filed a petition for fraudulent concealment and breach of fiduciary duty against the former wife. The trial court eventually entered summary judgment in favor of the former wife, holding that the above-quoted terms of the marital settlement agreement precluded the former husband from pursuing the lawsuit. The former husband appealed.
The appellate court noted “The claims against [the former wife] in [the former husband’s] lawsuit included: unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, constructive fraud, constructive trust, and equitable accounting. All these claims centered upon [the former wife’s] alleged concealment of her ‘scheme’ to defraud [the former husband] by purchasing several pieces of real estate in the name of several companies, using [the former husband’s] money, without his knowledge or approval. These real estate purchases are alleged to have occurred between January 2000 and January 2009. The MSA was executed on August 8, 2013, more than four and one-half years after the last of the alleged purchases. [the former husband] claims to have discovered this fraudulent scheme in 2014 when he conducted an ‘audit of [his] finances.’ In the 2013 MSA, [the former wife] was granted a property in Argentina and [the former husband] acknowledged having given [the former wife] certain loans in 2012, which were forgiven as a part of the terms of the Agreement.”
Citing the clause of the agreement quoted above, the court concluded “Thus, in 2013, [the former husband] had expressly waived any right to make a claim that there were additional marital assets, and his belated 2014 ‘discovery’ that there were other properties belonging to the couple is irrelevant. The fact that his ‘discovery’ of this alleged fraudulent scheme was uncovered by what [the former husband] later acknowledged was a simple public online search is further evidence that he could have easily discovered such assets (all alleged to be Miami-Dade properties purchased by [the former wife] between 2000 and 2009) long before [the former husband] signed the MSA in 2013. Because [the former husband] waived any right to claim the Miami-Dade properties allegedly purchased by [the former wife] between 2000 and 2009 were marital property, the trial court properly granted summary judgment.”
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