Tag Archives: financial

The Second Wife Impact

snake

the aptly named rat snake (thanks to Cotinis on flickr)

Andrew Commins, a colleague in chambers, has written an interesting article for Family Law Week on the impact of remarriage on variation applications by the ex spouse. I particularly like the mental image described in the extract from Delaney v Delaney [1991] 2 FLR 457, CA, that the court will deprecate “any notion that a former husband and extant father may slough off the tight skin of familial responsibility and…slither into and lose himself in the greener grass on the other side...” (Delaney, at page 461E).

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Fork tongued husbands be warned…

Trustee in Bankruptcy has 3 Year Window

I have not had time to read the full report of this case reported last week in The Times: Lewis and Another v Metropolitan Property Realisations Ltd (Court of Appeal, July 15 2009), but it is certainly going to be worth a look both for families concerned about losing their home and ex-(or soon to be ex-)spouses wondering whether the bankruptcy bears upon the ancillary relief. At time of posting it doesn’t yet appear to be on www.bailii.org. Judging from the brief summary in The Times it tells us this though: that a TiB has three years from the date of bankruptcy to get his money out of a former matrimonial home, or else the property will re-vest in the bankrupt. In this case on the day before the 3 year window ended the TiB had purported to transfer his interest in the property to a third party for consideration of £1 and 25% of any eventual sale of that interest. This little ruse did not work held the Court of Appeal, as it did not fall within the meaning of ‘realise’ as required in s283A(3)(a) of the Insolvency Act 1986. Thus, the property vested back in the name of the lucky LUCKY bankrupt.

Ancillary to NOTHING

Where there is no lawful marriage there is no divorce and where there is no divorce there is nothing for ancillary relief to be ancillary to. The BBC reports on the High Court ruling recently in respect of a distant beach marriage that did not create legal ties. Did this poor lady never hear of Jerry Hall? Sad story, but not in fact terribly interesting legally. What an unpleasant argument to have to run on behalf of the not-husband.

If that were a tale of the innocent deprived of their just deserts, this by contrast is a tale of a refusal by the courts to help an applicant for ancillary relief which is far less likely to arous you sympathy: this case of a paedophile convicted of sexually abusing his ex wife’s grandchildren is a rare example of conduct deemed bad enough to warrant the court refusing to exercise its discretion.