Mauk's Estate

Citations

• 19 Pa. Super. 338
• 1902 Pa. Super. LEXIS 98

Syllabus

<p>Husband and wife — Antenuptial agreement.</p> <p>The parties to an antenuptial contract are not like buyers and sellers dealing at arm’s length, and while it may not be necessary to show affirmatively that there was a full disclosure of the property and circumstances of each, yet if the provision secui’ed for the wife is unreasonably disproportionate to the means of the intended husband, it raises the presumption of designed concealment, and throws upon the representatives of the husband the burden of disproof. When under such circumstances the representatives of the husband have met this burden of proof, and established by evidence that there was no concealment of any material fact on his part, the agreement must be sustained.</p> <p>When passing upon the reasonableness of a provision for a wife in an antenuptial agreement, the court will consider its adequacy for her maintenance, the relationship of the parties, the known estates owned by each, and the circumstances under which the contract was executed.</p> <p>In a proceeding in the orphans’ court by a widow to enforce her statutory rights in her husband’s estate, notwithstanding an antenuptial agreement, the evidence showed that the paper had been prepared by an attorney at the instance of the deceased, and without consultation with his intended wife. The parties came to the attorney’s office together, no explanation was given by or to either of them, and no statement of any kind was made by either party as to the extent of their property. The woman at first refused to sign the contract, but after some urging by the man, and a statement by him that “he would do as he promised, would make a provision in his will,” she finally signed the contract, which was immediately acknowleged before a justice of the peace. At the time the contract was executed the man was worth $11,000 and the woman $200. The only provision made by the contract for the intended wife, in case she survived her husband, was that she should ha