## Facts

- Two weeks before marrying, the parties executed a premarital agreement waiving “all rights to any type of spousal support” upon dissolution.
- The agreement recited, and counsel certified, that each party had independent counsel, understood the agreement and its consequences, and signed voluntarily.
- The parties separated several years later, and the wife petitioned for dissolution and sought spousal support while investigating the agreement’s validity.
- At the time of the dissolution filing, each party had a net worth of about $2.5 million, and both were highly educated and professionally accomplished.
- During the marriage they maintained a high-cost lifestyle; the wife’s separate net income was substantially lower than that lifestyle.
- The trial court awarded temporary spousal support after concluding the spousal-support waiver was unenforceable on public policy grounds.
- The Court of Appeal reversed, holding spousal-support waivers in premarital agreements are not categorically invalid, and remanded for enforceability analysis under general contract principles.

## Issues

1. Whether a premarital waiver of spousal support upon dissolution is per se unenforceable as against California public policy.
2. Whether California’s premarital agreement statutes permit enforcement of such waivers, subject to ordinary contract defenses.

## Decision

- The California Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeal.
- The Court held no California policy makes premarital spousal-support waivers categorically unenforceable.
- The Court rejected a blanket public-policy rule invalidating such provisions, while preserving case-specific scrutiny under general contract doctrines (including voluntariness and unconscionability).

## Legal Principles

- Parties may contract in a premarital agreement regarding personal rights and obligations so long as the terms are not barred by statute or public policy.
- Statutory protection against adverse effect on child support does not, by its silence, create a categorical prohibition on waiving spousal support.
- Modern California public policy does not treat dissolution as so disfavored that a voluntary premarital waiver of spousal support is invalid solely because it may alter post-dissolution incentives.
- A premarital spousal-support waiver may be enforceable when entered voluntarily, with understanding of its legal effect, particularly where both parties are capable, financially self-sufficient, and represented by independent counsel.
- Even when not void as a matter of public policy, enforceability remains subject to traditional contract and equitable defenses, including lack of voluntariness and unconscionability.

## Conclusion

The court held that premarital waivers of spousal support are not automatically invalid in California; instead, they may be enforced when consistent with ordinary contract requirements and applicable defenses, rather than being struck down categorically on public policy grounds.


In re Marriage of Pendleton & Fireman, 24 Cal. 4th 39, 5 P.3d 839 (Cal. 2000)