Rachel Donald discusses the consequences of deception in divorce proceedings and the vulnerabilities of the current procedure ‘Munby P highlighted in Rapisarda that in each of the 180 cases the English court was being deceived: fundamentally in respect of the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the petition.’ In Rapisarda v Colladon [2014] Sir James Munby, president …
Continue reading "Divorce: Fighting fraud"
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Claire Blakemore provides a practical guide for trustees in the event of divorce div class=”pullquote”>’Trustees must consider carefully what position they will need to take in the context of the case and in particular on disclosure and enforcement.’ The American preacher Lorenzo Dow famously said ‘damned if you do and damned if you don’t’ and …
Continue reading "Divorce: Stuck in the middle"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | 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...
Anna Heenan looks at the circumstances in which a decree nisi may be set aside and the interaction with jurisdiction issues ‘If it is argued that decree nisi should be set aside because the court made an error on the basis of the materials before it then the proper course of action is to appeal …
Continue reading "Divorce: No going back?"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | September 2013 #132Michael Prest (husband) and Yasmin Prest (wife) were married for 15 years and had four children before the wife petitioned for divorce in March 2008. During the marriage the matrimonial home was in England, though for most of the time the husband was found to be resident in Monaco and there was also a second home in Nevis. Petrodel Resources Ltd (PRL), which was incorporated in the Isle of Man, was the legal owner of the matrimonial home and five other residential properties in the United Kingdom. PRL was part of a group of companies, one of which was the legal owner of two more resident...
Amy Harris highlights the procedural lessons in relation to divorce procedure in Kim v Morris The court has no discretion to grant a decree absolute after a period of reconciliation and cohabitation following knowledge of adultery and in those circumstances there is an absolute bar. Unusually, the decision in Kim v Morris [2012] relates to …
Continue reading "Divorce: No second chances"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | 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 ...
In the conclusion to their two-part discussion Claire Glaister and Frances Bailey look at less commonly used divorce practice and procedure ‘An amended petition will not generally be appropriate where the parties have reconciled and subsequently separated.’ As with part one of this guide, references are to the relevant rules in the Family Proceedings Rules …
Continue reading "Divorce: Outside the norm"
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In the first of a two-part discussion, Claire Glaister and Frances Bailey look at procedure, practice and potential pitfalls when dealing with divorce proceedings ‘In the increasingly common situation of the parties having been married abroad, a foreign marriage certificate should be accompanied by a translation that has been authenticated by a notary.’ The purpose …
Continue reading "Divorce: Practice points"
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