by Jake Adams

In Estate of Wesley Cooper v. Guido, the Mississippi Court of Appeals upheld the validity of an antenuptial agreement, also known as a prenuptial agreement, where the agreement was executed the morning of the wedding at the law office of the now deceased Husband’s attorney and Wife had an attorney present to answer her questions. The evidence also showed that Wife was not completely surprised by the agreement because she had supplied a list of her assets to Husband’s attorney days before she executed the agreement. In the agreement, Wife waived any claim she had to Husband’s estate and further waived her right to contest the validity of his Will.

Prenuptial agreements are upheld in Mississippi where it is shown that the parties fully disclosed their assets and where there is fairness in execution. Generally, fairness in execution is accomplished by giving the non-drafting party the opportunity to have the agreement reviewed by an attorney of his or her choosing prior to execution. However, that was not the standard in Estate of Cooper, where Wife only had an attorney available to answer her questions the morning of execution and the attorney was not necessarily one of her choosing. The Court of Appeals said “it is not now and never has been the function of this Court to relieve a party to a freely negotiated contract of the burdens of a provision which becomes more onerous than had originally been anticipated.”