In re Kohn
New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
39 N.Y.S.3d 825 (2016)
Daniel Kohn and Barbara Lutz (defendant) signed a prenuptial agreement entitling Lutz to $3,500,000 upon Kohn's death, minus the value of "any accounts that pass to [Lutz] by operation of law," including certain joint accounts; after Kohn died, his executor, Joel Hockett (plaintiff), argued the payout should be reduced by the accounts' full value since Lutz, as joint accountholder, received the entire value by survivorship, while Lutz argued only Kohn's half (the portion that actually passed to her at his death, since she already held her own half from the accounts' opening) should reduce the payout. The surrogate's court barred Hockett's extrinsic evidence (prior testimony of Lutz's former attorney) under the parol evidence rule and ruled for Lutz; Hockett appealed.
Whether a prenuptial agreement provision reducing a payout by the value of "accounts that pass to [the surviving spouse] by operation of law" is ambiguous when reasonable interpretations differ over whether it means the full account value or only the portion that legally transferred to the survivor at the other spouse's death.