British court rules prenuptial made in Germany is valid

THE Court of Appeal has ruled that a prenuptial agreement made overseas is still valid in Britain, a decision that could have implications for those going through divorce.

In a case involving a German heiress who was married to a French investment banker, the three-judge panel ruled yesterday that the agreement, signed in Germany before the couple married in London, was valid under English law.

“The Court of Appeal, in a carefully reasoned, thoroughly modern judgement, has enabled English matrimonial law to catch up with the rest of the world,” Ayesha Vardag, a solicitor for Katrin Radmacher, the German heiress, said after the ruling.

“From today, grown-ups can agree in the best of times what will happen in the worst of times.”

Radmacher, 40, married Nicolas Granatino in 1998, after signing a pre-nuptial arrangement in which they agreed that he would get nothing if they divorced.

Their marriage began to break down in 2003, after Granatino, 38, gave up his high-paying job working in emerging markets for JP Morgan to become a biotechnology researcher at Oxford University earning £30,000.

“When we met and married, Nicolas and I were broadly on an equal footing financially,” Radmacher said in a statement after the ruling.

“He too is an heir to a multi-million pound fortune and when we met he was an investment banker earning up to £330,000 a year. The (pre-nuptial) agreement was at my father’s insistence as he wanted to protect my inheritance.

“I am delighted that the court accepts that the agreement Nicolas and I entered into as intelligent adults before our marriage should be honoured.”

Granatino had been awarded £5.9m in the divorce, prompting Radmacher’s appeal.

Radmacher agreed to pay her ex-husband’s debts of £700,000 and provide him with a house and maintenance until the youngest of their two daughters turns 22.