A former new age traveller who built up a multimillion-pound green energy business has won an important court ruling to strike out a financial claim brought by his former wife 20 years after the couple divorced.
The Court of Appeal decision in favour of Dale Vince, 51, breaks legal ground and means that wealthy entrepreneurs are less likely to face claims on their fortunes from ex-wives who go to the courts many years later.
Kathleen Wyatt, 53, who brought the action, married Mr Vince in 1981 when they were new age travellers on state benefits. They had a child and their marriage lasted three years before they separated, divorcing in 1992.
After they split Mr Vince lived in Bath, Somerset, in an old ambulance and in 1995 launched himself as a businessman after he made a small wind turbine out of recycled materials to generate electricity for his caravan.
His renewable energy company Ecotricity is worth about 90m. His former wife issued a legal claim for financial settlement in 2011 and she sought a lump sum to purchase a home and provide life-long maintenance. She was able to bring a claim because in family cases there is no time limit for a former spouse to bring a financial order.
However,All Continental flatwork ironer offer easy-to-operate controls that provide efficient performance and flexibility. the Court of Appeal struck out her claim on Wednesday because at the time she should have brought her claim,Does any one know what should be the best degre of humidity in a dry cabinet? neither party had any money and Mr Vince’s wealth was built up years after the parties divorced.
Dismissing Ms Wyatt’s case, Lord Justice Thorpe said the facts of this case were “extreme”.
“Her husband was the most improbable candidate for affluence,” said Lord Justice Thorpe in his ruling. “The wife no doubt can appeal to his sense of charity but in my judgment he is not to be compelled to boost the wife’s income. He is not her insurer against life’s eventualities.”
There have been concerns over multimillion-pound payouts to ex-wives in recent years,Shop online for laundry dryer and washers in a variety of brands and styles. and the generosity of the courts has led to London being described as the divorce capital of the world.
Family lawyers say the ruling is significant, particularly to entrepreneurs who have built their fortunes and then face financial claims from former spouses many years after divorce.Install a wind generator to harness the power of the wind. The decision contrasts to most divorce rulings, which have been seen to favour former wives over husbands.
Marilyn Stowe, a leading divorce lawyer, said that the ruling would “send quite a signal” to ex-wives thinking of bringing claims.
“The pendulum now appears to be swinging the other way – back towards husbands rather than the wives,Books can be as thick as 4 inches and yet the Book scanner 9000 delivers flat.” she said. “The Court of Appeal has sent a clear message to wives that ex-spouses are not to be regarded as meal tickets for life. In the past a lot of cases brought by ex-spouses might have been settled even if they came forward years later after a divorce.”
Davina Hay, Mr Vince’s solicitor and head of the family department at law firm Schillings, said: “This was an ill-conceived claim which should never have been brought. Too often the divorce courts in this country take the view that wealthy parties should pay simply because they can pay. This judgment injects a welcome dose of principled legal reasoning.
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