HB-4751, As Passed House, October 26, 2017

SUBSTITUTE FOR

HOUSE BILL NO. 4751

A bill to amend 1981 PA 216, entitled

"An act to provide for the rights and liabilities of married women

with respect to certain real and personal property; to abrogate the

common law disabilities of married women with respect to certain

contracts; to prescribe the payment and satisfaction of judgments

rendered upon certain written contracts; and to repeal certain acts

and parts of acts,"

by amending section 8 (MCL 557.28).

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:

Sec. 8. (1) A contract relating to property made between

persons in contemplation of marriage shall remain in full force

after marriage takes place.

(2) A contract described in subsection (1) is unenforceable if

a party against whom enforcement is sought proves either of the

following:

(a) The parties' consent to the contract was the result of

fraud, duress, or mistake.

(b) Before signing the contract, the party did not receive

adequate financial disclosure, including disclosure of assets in a

domestic asset protection trust. A party has adequate financial

disclosure under this subdivision if 1 of the following applies:

(i) The party receives a reasonably accurate description and

good-faith estimate of value of the property, liabilities, and

income of the other party.

(ii) The party expressly waives the right to financial

disclosure beyond the disclosure provided.

(iii) The party has adequate knowledge or a reasonable basis

for having adequate knowledge of the information described in

subparagraph (i).

(3) A court may refuse to enforce a term of the contract or

the entire contract if, in the context of the contract taken as a

whole, either of the following applies:

(a) The term was unconscionable at the time the contract was

signed.

(b) Enforcement of the term may be unconscionable for a party

at the time of enforcement because of a material change in

circumstances arising after the contract was signed that was not

reasonably foreseeable at the time the contract was signed.

(4) The court shall decide the question of unconscionability

under subsection (3) as a matter of law.

(5) This section applies to contracts relating to property

made between persons in contemplation of marriage made before and

after the effective date of the 2017 amendatory act that amended