The wife’s failure to send notice of default as required by the parties’ divorce judgment resulted in no award of counsel fees on her enforcement application. So held the Appellate Division, Second Department, in its August, 2015 decision in Taormina v. Taormina, reversing the wife’s $7,781.25 counsel fee award by Westchester Supreme Court Acting Justice Janet C. Malone.

The wife had sought an award of a counsel fee pursuant to the parties’ judgment of divorce in connection with the husband’s alleged defaults as to certain obligations set forth in that judgment. The judgment, however, required the nondefaulting party to give notice of alleged defaults by certified mail. It was undisputed that the wife did not give such notice. Accordingly, the wife was not entitled to an award of a counsel fee pursuant to the terms of the judgment.

Moreover, as the record did not reflect that the husband’s defaults were “willful” within the meaning of Domestic Relations Law §237(c), that statute did not provide a proper alternative basis for the award of a counsel fee to the wife. Therefore, Justice Malone erred in awarding the wife a counsel fee.

Rocco V. Salerno, Jr., of Eastchester, represented the husband. Helene M. Selznick, of Somers, represented the wife.