Merl v. Merl

Titone, J. P.,

dissents, in part, and votes (1) to reverse so much of the order as granted defendant’s motion to modify the provisions of the separation agreement and (2) to deny that motion, with the following memorandum:

Although I, too, am sympathetic to the defendant’s plight, a contract is a contract and I can perceive no legal basis for Special Term’s order which rewrites the agreement of the parties. Accordingly, I must dissent from so much of this court’s determination as does so.

When, as here, “parts of a separation agreement are incorporated into but not merged within a divorce…