Family Law

HAYLEY TRIM, Family Law PSL, Jordan Publishing

On 20 October 2010 the Supreme Court finally handed down judgment in the eagerly anticipated Radmacher v Granatino [2010] UKSC 42 case. The facts are well known and can be found in Andrew Meehan's article ‘Analyse This: Radmacher v Granatino' in September [2009] Fam Law 816. Essentially, the French husband and German wife divorced in London. A German ante-nuptial agreement provided that neither party would have any claim on the other's property during the marriage or on its termination. The wife came from a very wealthy family. The husband was an academic having previously been a high earning banker.

Baron J awarded the husband £5.56m considering that although some weight should be given to the ante-nuptial agreement, this was limited because a number of the usual safeguards (disclosure, legal advice, etc) had been omitted. The award paid off the husband's debts of £700k, gave him a housing fund for a property in London and a fund for maintenance. He would also receive child maintenance of £35k per child per annum and a sum to buy a home (to remain owned by the wife) where the children could stay with him in Germany (although this became a Monaco property when the wife moved there instead).

To read the rest of this article, see October [2010] Family Law journal (link for online subscribers who have logged in). To log on to Family Law journal Online or to request a free trial click here.

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