Husband fails to reduce money paid to ex-wife - February 2008
A husband has lost his appeal to have the lump sum he paid to his former wife reduced because she later remarried.
The couple divorced in 1993 and the husband complied with a consent order to make regular maintenance payments to her. In 2005, he contacted her to say that he was about to start taking his pension and his income would be reduced.
They agreed that he should pay her a one-off lump sum in return for being able to stop paying maintenance in future. He asked her if she intended to marry another man with whom she had started a relationship. She replied that she had no plans to marry or cohabit. The couple then agreed on a lump sum payment of £125,000 and a consent order was made to that effect.
In 2006, the wife did in fact remarry. Her former husband applied to have the consent order set aside so the lump sum could be reduced. He said the sum had been agreed on the basis that his former wife would not remarry and the consent order should therefore be ruled invalid.
However, the judge refused the application because he considered that the remarriage had not been planned when the lump sum was agreed and the wife was being open and honest about her intentions at that time.
The Appeal Court upheld the ruling saying that the wife’s statement that she wasn’t planning to marry could only be taken as her intention at that specific time. It could not be taken to imply that she would never marry again. That was a risk her former husband had to take. |
