## Facts

- Helen Greiff married Herman Greiff late in life.
- Before marriage, the parties executed reciprocal prenuptial agreements in which each waived the statutory right to an elective share of the other’s estate.
- Herman arranged for and paid the attorney who represented Helen in connection with the agreement.
- Approximately three months after the marriage, Herman died.
- Herman’s will left his entire estate to his children from a prior marriage.
- Helen petitioned to take her statutory elective share despite the waiver, alleging undue influence, overreaching, and bad faith in the agreement’s procurement.

## Issues

1. When a surviving spouse challenges a prenuptial waiver of elective-share rights, who bears the initial burden regarding fraud, duress, or overreaching?
2. Must the challenger first establish a fact-specific inequality of bargaining position before the burden shifts to the agreement’s proponent?

## Decision

- The Surrogate’s Court invalidated the agreement after treating the proponents as bearing the burden to disprove undue influence or overreaching.
- The Appellate Division reversed and upheld the agreement.
- The New York Court of Appeals affirmed the Appellate Division’s result, holding that the Surrogate misallocated the burden of proof.
- The Court held the spouse challenging the agreement must first make a fact-based, particularized showing of inequality or other indicia of overreaching; only then does the burden shift to the proponent to prove the absence of fraud, duress, or overreaching.

## Legal Principles

- A properly executed prenuptial agreement waiving elective-share rights is presumptively valid and enforceable unless shown to be the product of fraud, duress, overreaching, or similar inequitable conduct.
- Because the premarital relationship is marked by trust and reliance, prenuptial agreements receive exceptional scrutiny, but they remain governed by contract principles.
- A challenger who asserts inequality of bargaining power must support that claim with fact-based particularity tied to the parties’ circumstances and the execution process.
- The proponent’s obligation to demonstrate fairness and freedom from overreaching arises only after the challenger meets the threshold showing sufficient to shift the burden.

## Conclusion

The court upheld enforcement of an elective-share waiver in a prenuptial agreement and clarified that the surviving spouse bears the initial burden to show, with specific facts, inequality or indicia of overreaching before the proponent must prove the agreement was free from fraud, duress, or overreaching.


In re Estate of Greiff, 92 N.Y.2d 341, 703 N.E.2d 752 (N.Y. 1998)