Ilott v Mitson & ors [2014] EWHC 542 (Fam)
May 2014 #139This was an appeal against quantum in an application under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. The deceased was called Melita Jackson and the appellant was her estranged daughter.
The proceedings had a protracted history. There was an initial hearing of the claim in front of District Judge Million on 7 August 2007. He found as facts that the appellant and her husband and family lived modestly in a housing association house. They were heavily dependent on state benefits. The appellant did not work and her husbands income was small. The family’s ...
CR v MZ & ors [2013] EWHC 295 (Fam)
March 2014 #137Previously MZ, the husband (H) and CR, his wife (W) had lived in West Africa. Initially H’s family had been against the marriage but after two children were born to the couple the wife was fully accepted. In late 2005 H and W bought their first flat, in Belgravia (Flat A) for a total cost of £1.62m. The deposit of £155,000 was provided by FZ, H’s father (F), as well as a further £217,000 towards the purchase. The balance came by way of mortgage of £1.24m, which was guaranteed by both H and F. The property was purchased in the name of COG Limited, a company which was set up by...
Tchenguiz-Imerman v Imerman [2013] EWHC 3627
January/February 2014 #136Beneficiaries of a number of offshore discretionary trusts were joined as parties on their application to contested financial remedy proceedings. The court had made an order that these beneficiaries should disclose copies of documents provided to them for the purposes of an application that had been made to the Royal Court of Jersey (RCtJ) by the trustee of some of those trusts. The RCtJ had given the beneficiaries permission to make such disclosure if they were ordered to do so but expressed concerns about and invited the court not to require such disclosure [2012] (2) JLR 51.
Th...
M v M & ors [2013] EWHC 2534 (Fam)
December 2013 #135The transcript of this judgment is reported in part from para 164 onwards and starts with a discussion of the law. No part of the report provides a factual narrative.
Held (allowing the wife’s claim for financial relief):
The court had power on divorce to order a party to the marriage to transfer to the other party such property as may be so specified to which that party was entitled, either in possession or reversion. In this case almost all the wealth created by the husband during the course of the marriage was held through offshore company structures and the ques...
DR v GR & ors [2013] EWHC 1196 (Fam)
July/August 2013 #131A post-nuptial settlement (being a Jersey discretionary trust) was created by a husband and wife in 1986. The trust owns a Liberian company, which in turn owns a UK company that owns two UK companies. The main company assets are two UK retirement villages. The beneficiaries included the husband and wife and two minor children.
During divorce proceedings the wife applied for a variation of the settlement.
Over the course of proceedings the trustees of the Jersey trust and the companies were all joined as parties. In both cases no application was made for joinder and no not...
AC v DC & ors [2012] EWHC 2032 (Fam)
June 2013 #130Mostyn J granted an application by the applicant (W) to set aside transactions pursuant to s37(2) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 that had been made by the first respondent (H) on about 2 December 2010 by which H disposed of his 86.4% shareholding in D Holdings Limited (DH). None of the respondents opposed the application. There was an issue whether or not the effect of the order operated retrospectively for all purposes, including fiscal purposes. Judgment was reserved and further written submissions were invited to determine whether the order setting aside the transact...
The X Primary Care Trust v XB & anr [2012] EWHC 1390 (Fam)
November 2012 #124XB, who for years had been suffering from a progressive illness (motor neurone disease), required an invasive ventilation device in order to breathe and, being unable to talk, could only communicate latterly by the movement of his eyes. The question of life-sustaining treatment had been discussed on a number of occasions with his general practitioner and a draft advance decision to refuse treatment was prepared at his behest by a mental capacity coordinator. After considering the draft, in order to explain it to XB, a further simpler document was prepared using a template found by his wi...
WF v HF [2012] EWHC 438 (Fam)
July/August 2012 #121H and W married in December 1993 when W was 32 and H was 62. They have three children aged between 17 and 12. H’s first wife died and he had four children, (the elder children) from that marriage – all now adults aged over 35. His second marriage ended in divorce, but he had no continuing financial ties to his second wife. W had not been married before. Her limited assets, £152,000, the net sale proceeds of her flat, had been invested in an investment portfolio supplemented by contributions from H (including a transfer of shares worth £2.477m). H was the chairman of a com...
AR v AR [2011] EWHC 2717 (Fam)
April 2012 #118The parties separated after a relationship of approximately 25 years and the wife commenced divorce proceedings (decree nisi being pronounced in October 2010). They had one child who was aged 18 (the husband had three children by his first marriage). The husband was aged 66 and the wife 54.
The total wealth was in the region of £21-£24m (all but approximately £1m was in the husband’s name). The source of the husband’s wealth was a business that his father bought shortly after the second world war, which floated in the 1950s and sold in the late 1980s. From his father, the husband ...
BJ v MJ [2011] EWHC 2708 (Fam)
April 2012 #118The husband (H) and the wife (W) were both 65, having married in 1980. There was one child of the marriage (C), aged 25. The former matrimonial home was Green Farm, a substantial property set in 72 acres in Kent. Trust assets fell to be divided following divorce.
In order to mitigate tax on the floatation of his company (ABC), two Jersey trusts were created by H in 1994 (No. 1 Trust and No. 2 Trust) and a company incorporated in the British Virgin Island called Giloch Investments Ltd (Giloch). No. 1 Trust was a discrertionary trust for a class of beneficiaries comprising H, W, C, ...