Two celebrity divorce settlements come in for appeal at House of Lords |
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Published
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Mon, 30 Jan 2006 19:55
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LONDON: The House of lords will hear and decide two multi-million-pound test cases on how ex-wives can have a fair share of their former husbands' wealth.
In the first case, Ken MacFarlane, 44, a partner with accountants firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, is appealing against a 250,000-pound-a-year maintenance awarded to his wife Julia, also 44, and the decision to divide their 3-million-pound family assets equally among them.
In the second case, Alan Miller, a fund manager with New Star Asset Management Group Ltd., argues that the 5 million pounds awarded as maintenance to his wife Melissa by a high court judge is unfair, and that his offer of 1.3 million pounds was generous enough as she was entitled to be returned to her earlier position as a wage earner with a high-earning potential.
The Lords will have to decide on the fair division of the family assets and the value of a wife's contribution to the marriage.
Melissa, 35, and an American, had been with Alan for less than three years in marriage before which she was living in a rented flat and earning 85,000 a year. Alan is estimated to have a wealth of around 17.5 million pounds besides shares in his fund management firm of about 18 million pounds.
Alan's counsel bluntly told the court of appeal that it would have cost him far less, at most 2 million pounds, if he had knocked Melissa down with his car and caused her severe injuries, instead of leaving her for another woman.
In Ken's case, the Lords will have to set a value for his wife Julia's contribution to the marriage as she gave up her career to take care of the couple's three children.
Legal pundits in the country believe the settlement in Ken's case will have a landmark value on the length of time wives will be entitled to receive maintenance. The House of lords had in 2000 laid down a yardstick of equality for courts to divide the wealth in such cases. Before that, the courts used to decide on the basis of reasonable needs.
This will be for the first time that the House of Lords will consider two such cases simultaneously.
Two recent celebrity separations that saw huge payouts are:
WPP Group Chief Executive Martin Sorrell, who split from wife Sandra in 2003 after more than 32 years of marriage, was ordered to pay around 30 million pounds last year, including a 23.5 million pounds in lump sum cash and two underground parking spaces at London's Harrods department store.
Karen Parlour, wife of soccer star Ray Parlour, was awarded in 2004 a third of his future earnings for four years, which amounted to 1.6 million pounds.
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