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The Florida District Court of Appeal held that a tentative mediation agreement in a pending divorce did not survive the husband’s death.
In Marlowe v. Brown, No. 4D03-3076, 2006 WL 2135997 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. Aug. 2, 2006), Neuberne Brown’s wife, Catherine, filed for divorce after a 25-year marriage. Shortly thereafter, the Browns entered into a “mediation agreement for temporary relief.” The agreement provided for equal distribution of assets and liabilities.
After Neuberne sought partition of the couple’s Naked Lady Ranch, the wife moved to enforce the mediation agreement, and the trial court ruled that the agreement was “valid and enforceable until and unless it is set aside.”
During the following year, Neuberne died, and Neuberne’s brother Richard, acting as personal representative, moved for equal distribution of marital property in accordance with the mediation agreement. As the Court observed, at the time of Neuberne’s death, “there had been no final judgment of dissolution, no valuation of the properties, and no plan of equitable distribution.”
The Court concluded that the mediation agreement “was too tentative and preliminary to control the disposition of property after the death of the husband.” Thus, the mediation agreement did not survive Neuberne’s death.
Additionally, the Court found that the Richard’s case should have been dismissed because “the husband’s death in this case left the wife in the legal position of one whose marriage was terminated by death, and not by a final judgment.”
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