The question before the court was, in the context of divorce proceedings between the petitioner and the respondent, whether either party to the marriage were domiciled in England and Wales. The respondent’s position was that neither were so domiciled, such that the divorce petition of the petitioner should be struck out for want of jurisdiction.
At the time of the proceedings the respondent was 72 years old. He was born in Mumbai, India. He moved to London with his family when he was 13 or 14. He studied in England, married and purchased a property in London, and pursued a ...
Continue reading "Divorce: Finding fault"
This is a claim relating to the estate of Medinat Bola Adepoju (the deceased) who died intestate in July 2015. The claimant is the daughter of the deceased and the defendant claimed to be a widower of the deceased.
While this was technically a probate claim, the issue between the parties in the short term was who should administer the estate. Each party feared that the other would favour themselves when administering the estate. The issue as to administration itself turned on whether the defendant and the deceased were validly married. The defendant argued that since he is the sur...
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Continue reading "Divorce: Silver splitters"
Anthony Collins (settlor) had three children by his marriage to Valerie Collins, namely Rachel who was born in 1989, Michael who was born in 1991 and Charley who was born in 1998 (children). The settlor was entitled to a whole life policy with Allied Dunbar (policy) and, during the course of divorce proceedings, gave an undertaking to the court to execute a declaration of trust in favour of the children on terms to be agreed between the parties. The settlor did not comply with the undertaking because he did not seek the agreement of Valerie Collins to the terms of any trust. Instead, by ...
The wife applied to join the trustees of the A trust and the B trust as parties to the litigation between the husband and wife. The husband was the settlor of both trusts. At one point husband and wife had been beneficiaries. They have now been irrevocably excluded from benefit. The wife was applying to vary both trusts.
One trust was subject to BVI jurisdiction and the other to the jurisdiction of the Swiss courts. The trustees of each trust were not submitting to the jurisdiction, and were intending to apply to the foreign courts for directions as to what to in respect of the l...
HN (the wife) married AN (the husband) on 30 September 2001. In July 2000 they had chosen a property known as Brooklands Farm (Brooklands) to be their future matrimonial home; it had been purchased in July 2000 for £725,000 by a Bahamian company called WP Ltd, which was owned by a Guernsey trust called the F Trust.
The F Trust was created on behalf of AN’s grandparents by a trust deed dated 19 January 1989. In 1998 various beneficiaries had received distributions in satisfaction of their respective entitlements and from this date only AN remained a beneficiary. In July 2000...
This was an application for ancillary relief following the wife’s divorce petition of October 2012, upon which decree nisi was pronounced on 17 April 2013. At the time of these proceedings the wife was 44 years of age, and the husband was 41. On paper, the husband had almost no assets and a modest income. However, the husband came from a family of great wealth with substantial lands in Pembrokeshire which they had owned for generations. His financial security was therefore absolutely assured.
The wife and the husband had first met in 1999. They had married in February 200...