Stourport woman wins landmark court battle over divorce settlement
A MIDLAND woman has won her landmark court battle over a divorce settlement which was slashed when her former husband went bankrupt.
Wendy Haines was awarded the proceeds of the sale of the matrimonial home, a detached five-bedroom farmhouse, by a judge during divorce proceedings in December 2004.
But her former husband David declared himself bankrupt a year later and the trustees in bankruptcy, with the sanction of the official receiver, claimed the transfer of the proceeds from Strudges Farm, Dunhampton, near Stourport, was void because it had been made at an undervalue. A district judge turned them down but a High Court judge ruled the transfer was void.
Yesterday Sir Andrew Morritt, the Chancellor of the High Court, and Lord Justices Thorpe and Rix, reversed that ruling, which will return the former husband's £120,000 share of the proceeds of the sale back to the 43-year-old wife.
The trustees are now petitioning the House of Lords for a final challenge over the case which was said to have "far reaching implications" for the powers of the divorce courts.
Lord Justice Rix, giving his ruling at the Court of Appeal yesterdaywed, said it would be "unfortunate in the extreme" if a settlement approved in a divorce court could be undone for up to five years because the husband goes bankrupt.
