Once a Georgia divorce decree takes in your settlement agreement, the decree is what governs. Anything the two of you agreed to beforehand that conflicts with it does not survive.
The Rule
Smith v. Simonds, 234 Ga. App. 575 (1998), states it directly: “[t]he judgment is conclusive on the parties, and the defendant therein cannot set up prior or contemporaneous agreement the effect of which would be to alter or modify its terms.”
How That Played Out
The facts show how unforgiving this is. A husband and wife signed a settlement agreement during their divorce under which, in lieu of alimony, he conveyed the marital residence to her outright. He deeded it over.
Before the divorce decree was entered, he came to believe the deal was unfair. He persuaded his wife to sign a second, written agreement giving him half the net proceeds of any future sale of the property, in exchange for his agreeing to the divorce. That side agreement was later recorded.
Decades afterward, when the property sold after her death, he claimed his half. The Court of Appeals held he could not have it. The decree had incorporated the first agreement, and the side agreement had been signed before the decree was entered.
Why the Timing Decided It
The Court explained that the parties’ “rights did not become fixed until finalization of the divorce decree,” and that “[t]he critical uncontested fact” was that the side agreement “preceded the court’s entry of the divorce decree.”
So the sequence is what matters, not the sincerity of the second deal or the fact that it was written down and recorded. If you want a term to bind you, it needs to be in the decree.
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This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!