Rasheed v. Sarwat
Rasheed v. Sarwat
Opinion of the Court
In this divorce action, Imran Rasheed (Husband) appeals the trial court’s grant of a motion to enforce a settlement agreement filed by Maryam Sarwat (Wife) and its incorporation into a final decree of divorce, contending that no settlement had ever been reached and that, in any event, the trial court’s order setting forth what it found as a complete settlement
The record shows that, on March 25, 2014, Wife filed a complaint for divorce from Husband. After entering a temporary settlement agreement, Husband and Wife participated in a mediation on April 6, 2015, at which time the parties agreed on some issues of the divorce, but not all of them. Husband offered Wife terms for all other outstanding issues, and the parties continued to negotiate through telephone calls and e-mail correspondence between their attorneys. By April 26, 2015, it appears that both parties believed that a full agreement had been reached, and both sides corresponded with the
As an initial matter, we are unable to address Husband’s first contention regarding the propriety of any settlement agreement between the parties because the trial court’s order gives no indication of the source of the settlement terms it cites. While the trial court instructed Wife’s counsel to draft an order reflecting prior agreements made by the parties in mediation and in exchanged e-mails, the order, itself, neither incorporates nor references any set of documents or correspondence. Therefore, as the order currently stands, we cannot determine whether the trial court correctly set forth terms corresponding to the discussions of the parties or whether the trial court properly concluded that a settlement occurred in the first place.
With regard to Husband’s second contention, however, we agree that the terms of the settlement agreement as found by the trial court are incomplete, and these terms do not address all required aspects of the divorce.
Based on the orders now before us, which neither identify nor incorporate any other documents containing additional terms, we must find that the terms of any divorce agreement appear incomplete and, therefore, reverse the trial court’s order enforcing the settlement, vacate the divorce decree incorporating the incomplete settlement, and remand this case to the trial court for further proceedings.
Judgment reversed in part and vacated in part, and case remanded.
The order enforcing the settlement purports to set forth “an enforceable agreement resolving the full terms of [the parties’] divorce.” (Emphasis supplied.)
We note that, in proper circumstances, parties may reach partial settlements as to their divorce. In this case, however, the terms set forth in the order enforcing the settlement are presented as a full settlement, not partial.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- RASHEED v. SARWAT
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published