time pressure aspects
8
of the parties’ courtship and Wife’s “vulnerable
emotional position” to coerce Wife into signing the prenuptial agreement, to
Husband’s pecuniary advantage.
9
Specifically, Wife was still experiencing
emotional and physical pain from having an abortion just two weeks prior
and the parties had an upcoming appointment at the Colombian embassy to
start the emigration process that Husband insisted could not take place
unless Wife signed the agreement. Based on these factors, the trial court
determined that Husband had engaged in coercion.
8
In the August 30, 2019 non-final order, the trial court highlighted numerous
“red flags” that influenced the court’s determination, including: “Mrs. Bates
[sic] receipt of the prenuptial agreement translated into Spanish on August
29th; the prenuptial agreement being signed by the parties on August 30th
with the wedding on August 31st; . . . and the timing of the demand to execute
the agreement or there would be no immigration processing and no
wedding.”
9
In the August 30, 2019 non-final order, the trial court found that Husband’s
demand that Wife “sign the translated prenuptial agreement the day before
the wedding or the consequence would be no wedding and no immigration,
[was] clear coercion.” Given our determination, supra, that the primary
difference between “duress” and “coercion” is the degree of compulsion
exerted by the defending spouse, we conclude that coercion, like duress,
can arise where the defending spouse threatens an action for the defending
spouse’s own pecuniary gain. See Berger, 466 So. 2d at 1151; Paris, 412
So. 2d at 953. We, therefore, examine the lower court’s finding of coercion
within this context. To this end, we conclude further that the legal principles
espoused in the “duress” cases cited in this section are, to the extent
discussed herein, equally applicable to “coercion.”