Ex-wife gets £5m in landmark divorce case

A WOMAN was entitled to £5 million (€732,900) of her former husband’s assets after just two years and nine months of marriage, Britain’s Law Lords ruled yesterday.

And another ex-wife awarded £250,000 (€366,000) a year from her former husband’s earnings was told she can keep her maintenance payments for life if necessary.

When the two cases went to the House of Lords, lawyers hoped it would give the highest court in the land the chance to clarify how judges should deal with big-money divorces.

But the general opinion was that the rulings would not end the uncertainty and the judgments could lead to even more feuding in the courts by former partners fighting for multi-million pound pay-offs.

Five Law Lords agreed that the benchmark for division should be equal shares — save in certain circumstances – no matter how short the marriage.

They said that to achieve fairness at the end of a marriage, the courts should look to three main considerations – financial needs, compensation and equal sharing.

They ruled that Melissa Miller, 36, could keep the £5m award from the £30m (€44m)-plus fortune of her former husband Alan, 42, an asset manager in the City of London, who had appealed against the decision of the lower courts.

Julia McFarlane, 46, won her appeal against a Court of Appeal ruling that her £250,000 a year from her lawyer ex-husband Kenneth, also 46, should be time-limited.

Solicitors Grant Thornton said the ruling, far from calming the frenzied world of divorce litigation, could lead to the wealthy partner in the marriage hiding his assets from his or her spouse in offshore accounts.

Andrea McLaren, a specialist in financial settlements on divorce at Grant Thornton, said: “We can be pretty certain of a significant rise in the concealment of financial assets as individuals try and keep them out of the ‘pot of wealth’ from which a financial settlement needs to be made”.

“Not only will this lead to longer and costlier divorce proceedings as a result of the investigations needed to trace the ‘missing’ assets, it could also result in a pressing demand for the recognition of pre-nuptial agreements.”

Commenting on the McFarlane case, Ms McLaren said: “Those who cannot afford a lump sum to pay off their spouses are likely to be unable to make a clean break in divorce, having to ensure lifetime payments to their former spouses.”

The two cases took on added significance following the split of Heather Mills from Sir Paul McCartney, who is worth £800m.