## Facts

- Sandra Guthrie and Dallis Guthrie married in 1998.
- In 2000, Sandra filed for divorce, and the divorce court ordered mediation.
- The parties executed a written mediated settlement agreement, signed by both spouses and their attorneys.
- Before the divorce court approved the agreement or entered a divorce decree, Dallis obtained new counsel, repudiated the agreement, and moved to set it aside.
- Dallis died before the divorce court ruled on the agreement or entered a divorce decree, and the divorce action was dismissed.
- After the estate probated Dallis’s will, Sandra filed a superior court action to enforce the settlement agreement.
- The executors asserted the agreement was unenforceable (including for lack of consideration) and sought summary judgment.

## Issues

1. Whether a marital settlement agreement executed to resolve a pending divorce can be enforced as a contract after one spouse dies and the divorce action abates, when the agreement was never approved by or incorporated into a divorce decree.
2. Whether a court may reject such an agreement by applying divorce-court discretionary review, rather than ordinary contract principles.
3. Whether disputed facts concerning contractual validity (including capacity and rescission) preclude summary judgment.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the Court of Appeals and reversed the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to the executors.
- The court held that, after the divorce action abates due to a spouse’s death, the settlement agreement must be evaluated as a contract dispute, not as a continuing divorce matter.
- The court agreed that an otherwise valid settlement agreement is not unenforceable merely because it arose in a divorce proceeding and was not incorporated into a decree.
- The case was remanded for further proceedings applying contract law, with factual disputes (including capacity and rescission) to be resolved.

## Legal Principles

- Death of a spouse abates a pending divorce action, but does not necessarily extinguish independent contractual rights created by a marital settlement agreement.
- A trial court’s discretionary authority in a pending divorce to accept, reject, or incorporate settlement terms into a decree does not govern post-abatement enforcement of the agreement.
- After abatement, enforceability turns on ordinary contract doctrines, including consideration, mental capacity, and rescission.
- Summary judgment is improper where material factual disputes exist regarding contract formation or avoidance.

## Conclusion

A mediated marital settlement agreement executed during a pending divorce may be enforced against a decedent’s estate as an ordinary contract even if no divorce decree was entered, and courts must apply contract law—rather than divorce-court settlement review—when the divorce action has abated by death.


Guthrie v. Guthrie, 277 Ga. 700, 594 S.E.2d 356 (Ga. 2004)