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Robin Charrot: The End of the Open Road
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The Supreme Court's eagerly awaited judgment in Prest (Appellant) v Petrodel Resources Limited & Others (Respondents) [2013] UKSC 34 was handed down on 12 June. The result surprised many commentators in two significant respects:
- The seven Lords Justice unanimously restored Moylan J's original order that various offshore limited companies (whom Moylan J had decided were controlled by Mr Prest) transfer seven properties legally owned by them to Mrs Prest in partial satisfaction of a £17.5m lump sum order.
- More importantly the Supreme Court was able to achieve what almost all would see as a fair result without extending the principle of piercing the corporate veil and whilst making it very clear that family courts cannot simply give company assets to wives because the sole owner and controller of the company is the husband.
How did they do this? In retrospect the answer was easy. They applied the same reasoning to the seven properties as Moylan J had applied to the matrimonial home. He decided that...
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