$10,000 Agreement if Petition to Modify Custody Upheld

People may remember in the fall of 2014 a state Superior Court case, Huss v. Weaver, C.D. No: 2013-1209, was published where the Superior Court reversed a trial court’s decision to sustain preliminary objections dismissing a complaint for breach of contract when a father did not pay $10,000 to a mother after he filed a complaint for custody, as their agreement provided that he would pay the mother $10,000 anytime he filed to modify the parties’ custody arrangement. However, not long after the decision from the Superior Court was handed down, the father filed a timely application for reargument before the court en banc, which was granted and the original decision of the Superior Court was withdrawn on Dec. 12, 2014. After the en banc review, in Huss v. Weaver, 2016 Pa. Super. 24 (Feb. 5, 2016), a similar result ­occurred and the court reversed the trial court and remanded the case.

According to the en banc opinion, the facts of the Huss case, in part, are as follows: Amy Huss (mother) and James Weaver (father) were involved in a romantic relationship but did not get married. During their relationship, they entered into an agreement that provided that in the event their relationship “resulted in a birth of a child, [mother] would have primary physical custody and [father] would have specified visitation rights, and that if [father] sought court modification of these terms he would pay [mother] $10,000 for each such attempt.” The parties had a son in 2010 and the father filed a complaint for custody. Thereafter, the mother filed a complaint alleging that the father “had failed to abide by his contractual promise to make the required $10,000 payment.” The father, an attorney at a large firm, provided the mother with “legal representation in various other matters,” and the father and a colleague drafted the agreement. The relevant portion of the parties’ agreement regarding custody provides as follows: “In the event that either [father] or [mother] terminates the relationship with the other, whether or not they are married at the time of such termination, the legal custody of any child by this agreement shall be shared by [father] and [mother] shall have primary physical custody of such children. In the event such termination of the relationship occurs, [father] agrees that he will not pursue full physical custody of any child by this agreement and further agrees that he will not attempt to use the fact that [mother] must work excessive hours selling real estate in order to earn large commissions to pursue custody of such child or children.”