fbpx

Family Judge Deeply Regrets Wealthy Ex-Couple's Inability to Compromise

6th July 2021 By

Judges often plead with divorcing couples to bury the hatchet rather than subject themselves to the financial and emotional self-harm of litigation. As a High Court case showed, however, such good advice is sadly not always heeded.

The case concerned a couple who worked together in their construction business and, from small beginnings, built up an enviable property portfolio. They had three children and, more than a decade after their separation, they remained legally married. They had obtained a decree nisi but no decree absolute.

Two years after their relationship ended, they reached an amicable agreement by which they sought to divide their assets. The husband retained the business, which had since prospered mightily. The current position was that he had a net worth of £12,450,000. The wife, whose net worth was £1,625,000, launched proceedings seeking at least £5 million from him.

Ruling on the matter, a judge observed that divorce proceedings could not have got off to a worse start: the couple had been separated for over nine years when the wife petitioned for divorce without any prior warning to the husband. He suffered the utmost hurt and distress as a result of her unnecessarily aggressive conduct. The judge, however, ruled that she should not be penalised for that.

He acknowledged that, were it not for the post-separation agreement, the wife would have been entitled to a substantial capital sum from the husband. The equal sharing principle would have applied to the case, albeit focused on the assets at the date of their separation and heavily discounted to take account of the husband’s post-separation success in expanding the business.

The existence of the agreement could not, however, be ignored and the judge was not prepared to agree with the wife’s assertion that the husband had cheated her. Overall, he found that it would be fair and reasonable to require the husband to pay the wife a £600,000 lump sum, or to transfer to her assets of equivalent value. He could well afford such a payment and, after making it, he would remain very significantly richer than the wife.

The judge noted that, more than once during the case, he had implored the couple to settle their differences rather than press ahead with a six-day trial. He deeply regretted their failure to take that course. Although they had been well served by their legal teams, their inability to compromise had caused untold damage to the whole family. They had incurred legal costs of at least £500,000.

Source: Concious

Latest News

Tenants Can Purchase Freehold When Landlord Cannot Be Found

11th June, 2024 By

The Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 gives qualifying leaseholders the right to join together to buy the freehold of their properties – a process known as collective enfranchisement. A recent case demonstrated that this right can be exercised even when the landlord cannot be found. The leaseholders of two flats in a terraced house wished to purchase it from the landlord, but were unable to ascertain his whereabouts and therefore could not serve notice on him under Section 13 of the Act. They therefore applied for an...

Court Refuses to Set Aside Divorce Order Applied for by Mistake

6th June, 2024 By

While the courts have a range of powers to set aside orders, they will only exercise them in limited circumstances. In a somewhat surprising case that has attracted much comment, the High Court declined to set aside a final order of divorce that had been applied for by mistake. A couple separated in January 2023, after more than 21 years of marriage. In October that year, while financial remedy proceedings were still ongoing, the wife's legal representatives inadvertently applied for a final order of divorce in respect of her instead...

Waiting Time for Grants of Probate Falls

3rd June, 2024 By

Following concerns last year about delays in processing probate applications, recent figures from HM Courts and Tribunals Service show that waiting times for grants of probate are continuing to improve. The average time from submission of a probate application to probate being granted fell to 11.3 weeks in March 2024, a decrease from 13.7 weeks in February and 13.8 weeks in January. This is the lowest figure since March 2023, when the average was 10.8 weeks. The longest waiting time since then was in November, at 15.8 weeks: that month,...

Late Appeal Against Tax Penalties Rejected

31st May, 2024 By

It is incumbent on taxpayers to make sure they fully comply with their obligations to file returns and pay any tax due. The point was illustrated by a recent case in which a taxpayer whose return had not been received by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) failed to persuade the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) that he should be permitted to appeal against the resulting penalties. On the evening of 31 January 2014, the man had completed his 2012/13 Income Tax return on HMRC's website. Shortly afterwards he went to Cyprus, and...