Woman to receive half of husband's penthouse despite prenuptial agreement

The Family Court in Jerusalem recently ruled that a woman will receive half of her ex-husband's penthouse apartment, despite a prenuptial agreement between them that established a separation of property. Judge Moshe Braun concluded that the husband had intentionally hidden the asset.

The couple married in the early 2000s and later signed a prenuptial agreement, which was approved by the court in March 2018. The document was comprehensive but did not contain a breakdown of the parties' assets, except for two companies owned by each of them. About a year after signing the agreement, the couple separated, and in July 2019, the woman filed a lawsuit to cancel it. She claimed that her ex-husband had hidden a penthouse in Jerusalem, valued at approximately 3.5–4.5 million shekels, asserting that he had actually purchased the luxury property from his parents rather than receiving it as a gift as he claimed.

The husband maintained that he received the apartment as a gift. He admitted to hiding it from his ex-wife but justified this by citing his parents' request—who have 11 other children—to keep the matter secret to avoid causing an "earthquake" within the family. Judge Braun explained that legally, the husband's version constituted a "confession and avoidance" argument, shifting the burden of proof onto him. The court determined that he failed to meet this burden.

The ruling emphasized that, according to case law, general waiver clauses in a prenuptial agreement do not apply to material assets that were hidden or unknown to the other party at the time of signing. The judge based his conclusion on the husband's suspicious choice not to call key witnesses, including his parents, the lawyer who allegedly drafted the gift agreement, and his siblings. Furthermore, recordings were submitted to the court in which the husband and his father explicitly admitted that the transaction was a sale, not a gift.

The judge also questioned why the defendant's parents would gift their only apartment to him while they themselves lived in rented housing and had 12 children. No evidence was provided to support the claim of a family "earthquake" upon the discovery of the secret.

Consequently, the court ordered that the penthouse be included in the resource balancing between the parties. The husband must pay his ex-wife half of its value, plus linkage differentials and interest from the date of the agreement's signing. He was also ordered to pay 40,000 shekels in legal costs and attorney's fees.