Beasley
Pranaitis
Sara Buske has admitted that she knew about a pre-nuptial agreement in a legal malpractice case stemming from her 2008 divorce from former trucking maven Thomas Buske.
Sara Buske filed her response to a request for the admission of facts filed by the law firm of Feldman, Wasser, Draper & Cox on June 17.
In her July 15 response to that motion, Sara Buske admits a number of facts about the pre-nuptial agreement that came into the spotlight during her divorce.
Sara Buske filed for divorce eight days after a $203.8 million civil judgment was entered against Thomas Buske in Wisconsin.
S.C. Johnson & Sons Inc., of Racine, Wisc. sought and won the judgment alleging that Thomas Buske defrauded it of millions of dollars using inflated trucking invoices.
The matter also drew interest from federal prosecutors.
S.C. Johnson filed to intervene in the Edwardsville divorce.
The company alleged that the divorce was a sham used by the Buskes to hide assets.
The company filed a motion seeking the production of the pre-nuptial agreement, but the case settled before it was produced in open court.
Sara Buske took away $325,000 from the settlement.
A trust containing $425,000 was set up for the couple's children.
Thomas Buske was allowed to keep $50,000 in personal property.
S.C. Johnson was given the rest to satisfy the Wisconsin judgment.
The settlement was approved in 2010 after the parties reached it in December 2009.
Sara Buske sued the Feldman firm, who represented her in the divorce, later that year along with her St. Louis accountants, RSM McGladrey.
She alleges that the law firm botched the divorce including the handling of the pre-nuptial agreement.
She alleged that the accounting firm gave her bad tax advice during the divorce. RSM McGladrey has since been dropped from the suit.
In the July 15 filing, the plaintiff admits she entered into the pre-nuptial agreement in 1993.
She admits that she was aware of the agreement when she sought counsel in 2006.
She admits that she informed her attorney Howard Feldman of the agreement prior to filing for divorce and that she told Feldman and her legal team that Thomas Buske would not assert the agreement in the divorce.
She objects to parts of the request to admit that she claims call for interpretations of the pre-nuptial agreement, settlement and other documents already entered as exhibits in the case.
Although the document notes that the pre-nuptial agreement is "Exhibit A," no exhibit is attached to the scanned filing in the case.
Madison County Chief Judge Ann Callis presides. She is the third judge to take the case. Madison County Circuit Judge Andreas Matoesian and William Mudge both bowed out of the case citing conflicts.
Madison County Associate Judges Duane Bailey and Thomas Chapman oversaw the 2008 divorce. Chapman shepherded the divorce to its settlement.
Jarrod Beasley represents Sara Buske in the case at hand.
A.J. Bronsky represents the Feldman firm.
The case is Madison case number 10-L-1211.