“Britain’s highest court has ruled that millionaires cannot use their business interests to shield their wealth from their spouses in divorce cases.
While many divorce lawyers celebrated the end of the ‘cheats’ charter’ reveling in the reassertion of London’s reputation as a haven for divorcing wives, others worried that it will be replaced by a “gold diggers’ charter,” and threaten the independence of companies. Marriage break-ups involving foreigners account for a sixth of cases before the English courts, which means a significant increase in international divorces now estimated to be 24,000 of the 150,000 in England and Wales each year. Another ruling on marital property agreements affirmed English courts’ reputation as more generous than others. The landmark case introduced the principle that divorcing ‘money earners’ should not necessarily retain the surplus after a parting couple’s needs had been met. Instead, the residual cash should be divided equally. London’s reputation as the divorce capital was reinforced again, in an anonymous case in which the court awarded £54 million to the wife, or 50% of the husband’s fortune, surpassing the previous record case in which an insurance magnate had to fork over £48 million to his wife after she rejected his £6 million settlement offer.“The mother of five, Ms. Chai, who has been living on their 1,000 acre, £30 million home in Hertfordshire since October, issued a divorce petition in England in February.
His lawyers have told the British Court that allowing the case to be heard would enhance “the ill-gotten reputation of this country for being the divorce capital of the world. The Daily Mail article on the divorce can be found here.