As part of a couple’s divorce agreement, all their mutual assets were split down the middle, including an investment account held in Bernard Madoff Investment Securities, LLC. When the divorce agreement was final, the firm’s client chose to remove her interest in the account. The plaintiff, who had left his share of the monies in the account, later claimed that there was a “mutual mistake between the parties and the monies divided were essentially ‘phantom funds.’”
Donald G. Tye, a partner and co-chair of Prince Lobel’s Domestic Relations Practice Group, successfully argued that the Middlesex Probate & Family Court properly dismissed the case, there having been no “mutual mistake” between the parties at the time of their agreement and all assets having been equally divided at the time of divorce in accordance with the agreement.