Two decisions rendered by the New York Court of Appeals since mid-2011 have reinforced a strong public policy in New York: “a deal is a deal.” In Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Walsh, 17 N.Y.3d 162 (2011), andSimkin v. Blank, 19 N.Y.3d 46 (2012), the gravity of the financial catastrophes which unfolded after the parties’ divorce settlements failed to persuade the court to reform the settlement agreements because of a strong public policy in favor of the finality of marital settlement agreements. Even when facts (or sympathies) may exist which could support an argument for a different outcome, the message being delivered by the court in these cases appears to be that so long as a spouse entered into an agreement in good faith and with clean hands, giving fair consideration, he or she can rely on the agreement being upheld.

‘Walsh’

The husband and wife in Walsh entered into a settlement agreement in November 2006, after 25 years of marriage. The agreement provided, among other things, that the husband would pay the wife a distributive award of $12.5 million, paid out biannually through 2020. The wife waived any further claim for a distributive award or an award of equitable distribution with respect to any property acquired by the husband. Two years after the divorce, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Stephen Walsh with violating the anti-fraud provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act and the Securities Exchange Act, alleging that he and his business partner misappropriated $550 million, between 1996 and 2009, from funds they managed for institutional investors.

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