Margaret Hatwood & Sandra Bayne: Haines v Hill: The Division of the Spoils

Margaret Hatwood and Sandra Bayne Associates Thomas Eggar

In May 2007 the High Court decision in Hill v Haines [2007] EWHC 1012 (Ch) [2007] 2 FLR 983 overturned the long-held understanding among family lawyers that a decision made after a fully contested hearing could not be challenged by a trustee in bankruptcy. This led to concern among family lawyers that trustees in bankruptcy would rummage through their filing cabinets to see if they had any cases where orders made in divorce proceedings could be set aside. The decision meant that any wife who had obtained her divorce settlement following a contested hearing in the last 5 years whose husband subsequently went bankrupt could find the assets that had been transferred to her vulnerable to attack even where as in Haines the transfer pre-dated the bankruptcy.

Thankfully for such wives a strongly constituted Court of Appeal overturned this decision on appeal in Haines v Hill [2007] EWCA Civ 1284 [2008] 1 FLR (forthcoming) where Thorpe LJ said with admirable clarity:
'There is an obvious tension between the statutory scheme for the protection of a bankrupt's creditors and the statutory scheme for...

Read the full article here.