The court considered cross-appeals in a case first decided by the District Judge involving substantial assets. The order gave the wife approximately 45% of the assets.
Held: The court increased the wife’s share to equality. Coleridge J differed from the District Judge neither in principle nor in approach but on point of detail. The District Judge had said: ‘Counsel says that this greater emphasis on contributions is an inevitable consequence of the decision in White. I disagree. It is a temptation but it is not a consequence and to give way to it is to commit the very error which White warns us not to, that is to treat some of the factors in section 25(2), in this case contributions, as more important than the others.’ and ‘For my part, I would find it repugnant as a judicial exercise to have, in effect, to draw up a merit table in which fine gradations of contribution give rise to a marginally increased or decreased share in the financial spoils of marriage. By whose standards should I measure such distinctions?’ and ‘In this case, it is sufficient, as I find, to record that both the husband and wife each made their full and equal contributions in their respective roles within this long marriage. The family has been financially successful and the job of raising the children and looking after the various homes has also been successful. The role of the husband has been predominant in the financial success and, as I find, the role of the mother and wife has been predominant in keeping house and raising the children. Any further distinction is, in my judgment, impossible to draw on the evidence.’ the court commented: ‘In the context of this case in relation to this question of contribution, I unhesitatingly agree with the district judge that no useful distinction can be drawn between the husband’s contribution and the wife’s contribution. I can find nothing special, exceptional or stellar about the husband’s contribution in this case. He has undoubtedly worked diligently and successfully and over a long period to amass the assets that have been amassed over the duration of this marriage. He has had some good years and some very good years, but if the facts of this case lead to a finding of a special contribution, in my judgment it would be the thin end of a wedge being driven right into the heart of the principles underlying White v White. So I unhesitatingly come to the view that the district judge’s findings and approach were correct even in the light of Cowan v Cowan.’ and: ‘Underlying this appeal and my decision to allow it there seems to me to be two important points:
The significance attaching to a particular fractional percentage is more than merely the monetary value it represents. It goes to the core of the party’s understanding of fairness. So 50/50 resonates with fairness (as the House of Lords has identified); both parties depart with the sense of being equally valued. There are no winners or losers. Once there is a departure from equality, as there often has to be, however small that departure, one party (more often the wife) is left with a sense of grievance, of her efforts having been undervalued. Understandably, at the time of divorce these considerations matter a great deal to the parties.
In this case, after a marriage which lasted in excess of 25 years, net assets, after deduction of notional sale costs and capital gains tax, have been accumulated amounting to more than andpound;2.7M. Accordingly, there is ample to go round. It would indeed be sad if, in this category of cases (as opposed to those cases where the overall means are less than sufficient and so the needs of children and their carers must inevitably remain predominant), the broad and sweeping reform underlying the speeches in White v White was to become bogged down in a welter of zealous, over-sophisticated and costly forensic analysis, or watered down by judicial reticence.’
Coleridge J
[2002] 1 FLR 415
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Lambert v Lambert CA 14-Nov-2002
The parties appealed an order for the division of the family’s 20 million pound fortune on divorce. The husband argued that his special contribution to the creation of the wealth meant that he should receive a greater share.
Held: The Act gave . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Family
Updated: 12 December 2021; Ref: scu.235253