Burns v. Burns

OPINION OF THE COURT

Richard A. Dollinger, J.

Is old law still good law? In that regard, can a contractual obligation to pay maintenance be enforced if the former wife (receiving the maintenance) has now remarried and the parties’ “opting out” agreement does not contain a cutoff upon remarriage?

The answer to these inquiries carries the court into an interaction between negotiated contractual rights in “opting out” agreements and the dictates of the seldom-cited, and all but ignored, first sentence in section 248 of the Domestic Relations Law, mandating that courts must not enforce any orders…