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Where blame, if any, attaches for the breakdown of a marriage is generally irrelevant when it comes to dividing assets following divorce. However, as a cruelly deceitful husband discovered to his cost, bad behaviour can have consequences in that it is hardly likely to endear you to a family judge. The case concerned a couple of Russian origin who had two children during their 25-year marriage. The husband had encouraged his wife to move to the UK with their children whilst he remained in Russia. It came as a complete...

Lordships of the manor, whilst sounding grand, are often viewed as arcane titles with little real significance in terms of property rights. However, that is not always so and, in one High Court case, a lordship which was bought for just £100 almost proved a fatal stumbling block to a proposed residential development. As lords of the manor – a title they had acquired from their father, who bought it in the 1960s – a brother and sister owned the freehold of a scenic common. They grew concerned after the...

Few people nowadays care whether a child is born within wedlock, but the law is in some respects behind the times. In a ground-breaking ruling, however, the High Court has opened the way for illegitimate members of an extended family to receive shares of a £1.29 million trust fund. The trust was established by a member of the family in 1959. It identified its beneficiaries as the male descendants of the settlor's brothers and sisters. A further family trust made provision for female descendants. The trust identified a vesting day,...

The full rigour of formalities that must be gone through in order to solemnise a marriage have been upheld in a landmark case. The Court of Appeal found that a ceremony performed in a restaurant which was not registered as an authorised wedding venue was a 'non-marriage' with no legal effect whatsoever. Early on in their long relationship, which yielded four children, a former couple went through a nikah – a form of Islamic marriage ceremony – in the restaurant. Due to the venue's lack of registration, they were aware...