Background
Danielle E. Nitsche sought dissolution of her marriage to John A. Bosch, Jr. and a declaration that their 2015 premarital agreement was valid and enforceable. The parties had separately retained counsel, negotiated multiple drafts, and Bosch signed the final version. Nitsche produced a copy bearing Bosch’s signature, but neither party could locate an original or copy signed by both parties.
After an evidentiary hearing, the Kane County circuit court credited Nitsche’s testimony that she signed the same agreement, scanned and stored it, and later unsuccessfully searched for it. The court admitted the copy under Illinois Rule of Evidence 1004, found that both parties had signed the agreement, and declared it valid and enforceable, subject to Bosch’s ability to raise other enforceability challenges.
The Court’s Holding
The appellate court affirmed. Section 3 of the Illinois Uniform Premarital Agreement Act requires a premarital agreement to be in writing and signed by both parties, but it does not require production of an original or copy displaying both signatures to prove execution.
General Illinois evidentiary rules therefore permitted proof through secondary evidence, including testimony. Applying the preponderance standard and deferring to the trial court’s credibility findings, the court held that the finding both parties signed the agreement was not against the manifest weight of the evidence.
Key Takeaways
- A missing fully executed original or copy does not itself invalidate a premarital agreement under section 3.
- Execution of a lost premarital agreement may be proved through credible secondary evidence, including witness testimony.
- Appellate courts defer to trial-court credibility findings unless the opposite conclusion is clearly apparent.
Why It Matters
The decision confirms that the statutory signature requirement concerns whether both parties actually signed, not whether a litigant can later produce a document visibly bearing both signatures. Parties seeking to enforce a lost premarital agreement must still prove execution, but may do so with testimony and surrounding evidence.