They Can’t Do That! or Can They?

According to “My Family Law Celebrity Blog”, the mediated agreement that Mel Gibson and his ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva had reached in May 2010 is going to be challenged by Oksana as being unenforceable. The issue that allegedly is making the agreement unenforceable is the language discussing the destruction of “evidence”. While it is outside the purview of this blog to comment on the enforceability of agreements that discussing the destruction of any type of evidence, there are two provisions in the agreement the enforceability of which could be questioned under Pennsylvania law.

Their agreement (which you can review for yourself here) provides, in part, that Mel is going to pay the following his daughter Lucia:
* $50,000 per year for 20 years into a trust for Lucia to be used for her health, maintenance, support, and education AND it would offset any child support order;
* $10,000 per year for 20 years into a 529 education account for Lucia’s college expenses;
* $4,000 per month in actual child support;
* 100% of Lucia’s college tuition in excess of the money in the 529 account;
* 100% of the costs for Lucia’s education from pre-school through high school;
* 100% of Lucia’s unreimbursed medical expenses excluding elective cosmetic surgery;
* 100% of the costs for the nannies at each parent’s house; and
* Mel is to maintain life insurance and set up additional trusts to provide for Lucia.

These amounts do not include the money that is to being paid to Oksana which include $1 million outright, $1.1 million in three payments over the course of 15 years and $10,000 per month for 18 years which is to be offset against any child support order.

Both K.McKinney, the author of the blog, and I are concerned about the provision in the agreement that provides, in effect, should Oksana seek a modification of child support for Lucia, the child support amount is changed to $5,000 per month. It is not clear from the agreement as to which other obligations would be eliminated if there is a child support order. However, the important consideration under Pennsylvania law is that child support provisions in any agreement are always modifiable by a court. The Court can increase a parent’s child support obligation if the financial circumstances of the parties warrant it at the time of the modification.

In addition, while Pennsylvania law currently provides that parents are not obligated to pay for their child’s college tuition expenses, should the parties agree that one or both of them are going to pay for a child’s college tuition, the Court will enforce that agreement.

So, under Pennsylvania law, there is at least one provision of Oksana’s and Mel’s agreement that is not likely to be held enforceable and another provision that would be enforced even though the Court on its own could not order Mel to pay for college.

and TMZ