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Ohio Law - Prenuptial Agreements Valid prenuptial agreements are generally enforceable in Ohio. They must be signed freely, without fraud, duress, or coercion, and must not be outrageously one-sided. Marital misconduct during a marriage does not nullify a prenuptial agreement -- unless the agreement itself says it will. Section 3105.171(A)(6)(a)(v). Cases: Gross (1984) 464 NE 2d 500 (The husband had been worth approximately $500,000 at the time of the marriage, due to his ownership in several Pepsi-Cola bottling franchises. The wife, a secretary in the company, was worth approximately $5,000. The prenuptial agreement provided that the wife would get alimony of $200 per month for 10 years, half the value of the house, most of the furniture and furnishings of the house, a car, and a trust fund of $200,000. By the time of the divorce, nearly 14 years later, the husband was worth approximately $6 million. The court held that this agreement was valid. The wife had been represented by a lawyer, had negotiated over the agreement, and had signed it despite her lawyer's recommendation that she not sign it. There was full disclosure at the time. The husband did not trick the wife. And nothing in the agreement encouraged divorce, for example, by ratcheting up the settlement after a relatively short period of time. However, in light of the husband's great success, the provisions for alimony were held to be unconscionably low, and the appeals court asked the lower court to determine a fair alimony figure.) Fletcher (1994) 628 NE2d 1343 (In this case, the prenuptial agreement was presented to the wife on the day of the wedding. The court stated that if a prenuptial agreement is presented a very short time before the wedding, that coercion will be presumed, and the agreement will be presumed invalid, if the postponement of the wedding would cause significant hardship, embarrassment, or emotional stress. In this case, however, the wedding, a second marriage for both, was small and informal, and postponement would not have been stressful. So the agreement was upheld.)
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