Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court (Hughes, J.H.O.), entered November 8, 2002 in Greene County, ordering, inter alia, equitable distribution of the parties’ marital property, upon a decision of the court.
The parties were married in 1969 and have two children who are now emancipated. In 1982, the parties separated for a short time and conveyed their joint title to the marital residence solely to plaintiff pursuant to the terms of a separation agreement. In 1999, plaintiff commenced an action for divorce. Following a hearing, Supreme Court issued a judgment of
Initially, we note our agreement with defendant that, although Supreme Court mentioned several statutory factors in its decision (see Domestic Relations Law § 236 [B] [5] [d] [1]-[13]), it failed to set forth the reasons for its distribution of the parties’ assets by reference to those factors (see O’Connell v O’Connell,
Focusing on the marital residence, Supreme Court noted that it was conveyed by plaintiffs parents to both parties in 1981 and the parties then conveyed their interests as tenants by the entirety to plaintiff as sole title owner in November 1982. The record indicates that this conveyance was made pursuant to the terms of the parties’ valid separation agreement executed by them on September 15, 1982. In this regard, we note that “the execution of a separation agreement [serves] as [a] * * * terminating event in defining marital property for equitable distribution purposes” (Anglin v Anglin,
We are, however, persuaded that Supreme Court erred in directing that defendant pay plaintiffs counsel fees. While trial courts have considerable discretion in considering counsel fee applications (see DeCabrera v Cabrera-Rosete,
Defendant’s remaining contentions have been examined and found to be lacking in merit.
Cardona, P.J., Mercure, Carpinello and Kane, JJ., concur. Ordered that the judgment is modified, on the law, without costs, by reversing so much thereof as awarded plaintiff counsel fees, and, as so modified, affirmed.
