## Facts

- Louis Eugene Taylor married Mary Ann Taylor on June 22, 1996, one day after they executed a prenuptial agreement.
- The agreement stated the parties wished to marry without changing their existing financial interests.
- The agreement provided that each party’s property would “forever remain” that party’s personal estate and “forever [be] free of claim by the other.”
- It also stated each party retained the same authority over their property “as each would if not married,” including rights to use, sell, gift, and convey.
- The agreement included provisions addressing separation or divorce, including disclaimers of support- and property-division claims tied to premarital property.
- After Louis died intestate, his son, Joshua Eugene Taylor, petitioned in probate to determine beneficiaries.
- The probate court found the agreement ambiguous as to waiver of surviving-spouse rights, received Mary Ann’s testimony that she did not intend to waive such rights, and ruled the agreement did not affect her right to share in the intestate estate.

## Issues

1. Whether the prenuptial agreement’s broad “forever free of claim” and “as if not married” property clauses unambiguously waived the surviving spouse’s statutory and constitutional rights in the decedent’s estate, including elective share, intestate share, and family allowance.
2. Whether the probate court erred by treating the agreement as ambiguous and relying on extrinsic testimony about subjective intent.

## Decision

- The First District Court of Appeal reversed the order determining beneficiaries and remanded.
- The court held the prenuptial agreement was unambiguous and operated as a waiver by the surviving spouse of the elective share, intestate share, family allowance, and other rights generally afforded to surviving spouses.
- Because the agreement was unambiguous, the probate court’s reliance on testimony about intent was improper.

## Legal Principles

- A premarital agreement is construed as a contract; if its language is unambiguous, courts enforce it according to its plain meaning.
- Broad provisions that each spouse’s property will remain that spouse’s personal estate and “forever free of claim by the other” can waive surviving-spouse probate rights, even without enumerating specific rights such as “elective share.”
- When a premarital agreement’s terms are unambiguous, extrinsic evidence cannot be used to vary or contradict the agreement’s legal effect.

## Conclusion

The appellate court held that the prenuptial agreement’s plain language barred the surviving spouse from asserting elective-share, intestate-share, family-allowance, and related surviving-spouse claims against the decedent’s estate, and it reversed and remanded for further proceedings consistent with that waiver.


Taylor v. Taylor, 1 So. 3d 348 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1st Dist. 2009)