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- A hearing at which Cobb J considered the appropriate sanction for breaches of a freezing injunction. The parties had never married, but lived together for about 20 years and had five children. The female partner had asserted that there had been 562 withdrawals from the account, and the vast majority had been proven. Cobb J took into account that it was not the female partner's wish to see the male partner imprisoned, and that the breaches had been deliberate, repeated, and over an extended period of time, leaving the account materially depleted, and that the male partner had at no time admitted his wrongdoing or accepted responsibilty for the breach. A six-month sentence of imprisonment would be the appropriate sanction, suspended for twelve months, to ensure his compliance with the extant final orders. Judgment, 18/11/2020, free
- In the course of consolidated Children Act 1989 Schedule 1 enforcement proceedings and Children Act 1989 section 8 proceedings, the father appealed against an order for financial disclosure with a penal notice, and a costs allowance order in favour of the mother. He also sought to put in evidence of the mother's alleged non-disclosure and drug use. Williams J refused the father's applications to admit fresh evidence, to amend the grounds of appeal, and for disclosure of the means by which the mother's lawyers were funded through the Children Act proceedings. He had not demonstrated a realistic prospect of success in relation to any of them, nor was there any other compelling reason to grant permission to appeal. The mother sought an order for the father to pay her costs of and occasioned by the appeal and the associated applications. Williams J was satisfied that this was an appropriate case in which to make such an order. Judgment, 05/11/2020, free
- The parties had been married and had a ten-year-old daughter. The proceedings had been protracted and involved substantial costs. The judge had made an income clean break order. The husband had applied to enforce the outstanding payment of the lump sum. The wife now applied to set the order aside, make a new order or vary its terms insofar as it dismissed income claims and required payment of a lump sum. She argued that where there was an executory order which had not been fully implemented, and the current circumstances were inequitable, the original order should be set aside and everything opened up again. She placed specific reliance on Thwaite [1981] 2 All ER 789. DDJ David Hodson dismissed her application, apart from as to the date of payment. He was satisfied that the appropriate test was either "significant change of circumstances or quasi-Barder" and in his view none of the reasons given in this case came remotely close. Judgment, 21/08/2020, free
- An application by the wife to vary and extend the freezing orders granted against the first respondent in 2016, to cover all of his assets. They had been granted because of a real risk that the judgment – that the husband should pay the wife £453,576,152 by way of financial remedy consequent upon the breakdown of their marriage – would otherwise have gone unsatisfied. Knowles J had no hesitation in concluding that there was a real risk that the judgments and orders in the wife's favour would go unsatisfied if the relief were not granted. The husband's complex web of illicit transactions had expanded beyond the perceived scope of the original freezing orders, with the result that he and third parties had felt able to ignore the court's orders with impunity. Judgment, 21/08/2020, free
- The couple had been separated since 2012 and divorced since 2014. They had two children, aged 13 and 15. The husband was in very substantial breach of his financial obligations under a previous order, to the extent of £2.6m. The husband claimed that he was insolvent and could be made bankrupt by any one of his many creditors. In HHJ Hess's view, the husband was asking her to re-open the overall quantum of a lump sum by instalments which had been part of a consent order which had been intended to be a final package. Since he was a substantial cause of his own problems, she could not regard those problems as rendering it unjust to hold him to the original order. Despite his current difficulties, the order would not be discharged by bankruptcy proceedings or by time limitation, so the former wife might one day be able to enforce it. The capital order was varied to adopt a new, agreed figure, and the child periodical payments order was varied in accordance with an agreement reached between the parties. Judgment, 08/08/2020, free
- In proceedings for the enforcement of an ancillary relief award, the wife had made an application for disclosure by the tenth respondent, her son, to whom she claimed monetary assets had been transferred by the husband, and the son had applied for disclosure of her funding arrangements and various documents upon which she relied. Knowles J concluded that the son's counterclaim should be struck out. He had no entitlement to seek any relief in respect of the wife's funding arrangements and had failed to demonstrate that there were legally recognisable grounds for challenging their legality. It was decided that the son should disclose documents containing receipts of $100,000 or more, and various other requests were also to be answered. As to the son's application for disclosure, it did not breach Article 6 for the wife to hold on to irrelevant documents. The son had no need to see documents which the wife's solicitors were satisfied did not contain any personal or financial information relating to him. The son also made an application, unsupported by any witness statement, for a reporting restriction order, with the goal of preventing his personal finances from being made public. The case had generated a good deal of media interest. Knowles J decided that the draft order as it stood would inhibit responsible reporting of the proceedings, but he was persuaded that there should be an order to prevent the son's address and other personal information being included in reports. Judgment, 13/06/2020, free
- The children had repeatedly told their guardian, and through her the court, that they wanted to continue living with their mother in England. The Spanish court had ordered that they live with their father in Spain. Russell J DBE found that on any objective and neutral analysis both children were habitually resident in England. They were settled here and were fully integrated into their schools and social environment. There was no significant evidence contrary to such a finding, and jurisdiction was with and in this court. The mother's appeal against enforcement of the Spanish order was allowed. The children would live with her, and would have contact with the father, subject to him providing written permission for the renewal of the children's passports, and documentary evidence that the Spanish order had been discharged and all criminal complaints in Spain against the mother had been dropped. Judgment, 06/02/2020, free
- The former wife sought a Hadkinson order barring the husband from proceeding with an appeal in Family Law Act proceedings unless he made good the default in his payments of child maintenance. Cohen J noted that this might be the first time the Hadkinson principle was extended to cover proceedings which were related but not identical. However, the remedy could be extended to this situation, and the husband's appeal in the related matter would be struck out unless he paid the maintenance due. Judgment, 27/01/2020, free
- The wife's judgment summons alleged the accrual of significant arrears. The husband claimed that he was subject to cashflow difficulties. Mostyn J was satisfied that there had been a sufficient change of circumstances and a sufficiency of evidential proof to justify a suspension, rather than a variation. The judgment summons would be adjourned while a private FDR took place. Judgment, 18/12/2019, free
- The wife was seeking to enforce a financial order made in her favour. It had been the largest financial order ever made in favour of a wife in the jurisdiction and the husband had not paid a penny of it. She now made this application in respect of documents which had been obtained from a former employee of the husband, who was now assisting in her litigation enforcement efforts. An application for directions pursuant to UL v BK should have been made when the documents were received, but was not. Given that this was a case involving fraud and evasion on the husband's part, Knowles J directed that the wife and her lawyers were entitled to retain and use certain of the documents as if they had been disclosed by the husband, including those that were potentially privileged. Knowles J also gave guidance as to what should be done in similar situations in future. Judgment, 27/11/2019, free