Lawyer’s $52K Alimony Tab Lifted, Despite Contract Cross-Out

A New York judge has ruled a Long Island divorce lawyer does not have to pay $52,000 a year in maintenance because his estranged wife is living with another man, despite the lawyer’s assurance that he wouldn’t enforce the cohabitation clause in the maintenance agreement.

The New York Law Journal identified the lawyer as Alan K. Hirschhorn of Jaspan Schlesinger Hoffman in Garden City, N.Y. Hirschhorn argued the clause barring maintenance in the event of cohabitation was enforceable even though he told his wife in 2003 he would ignore it, and he crossed it out on several copies of the 2002 agreement, the Law Journal story reports.

Hirschhorn had argued the cross-out was unenforceable because it was done without legal formality or significance.

Judge Jeffrey Brown of Nassau County agreed in an Oct. 28 opinion (PDF posted by the New York Lawyer) that the change was not legally binding because the separation agreement provided that changes must be signed under seal by both parties.