18th February 2010

A British man has won the right to have his divorce financial settlement case heard under French family law even though he and his wife are both British citizens and their marriage took place in the UK.

When the marriage broke down the former Corus commercial director, his wife and their two children were living in France, yet the estranged wife filed for divorce in the UK.

The estranged husband subsequently made a counter claim to the High Court stating that as the couple were resident in France at the time of the split so French family law courts should rule on their financial settlement. The claim was upheld.

A UK divorce court would typically have awarded the wife around 50 percent of her husband's total assets - estimated at around £800,000 - a portion of his current six-figure salary as maintenance and a 50 percent share of his £1.2million pension fund.

However, French courts will be unable to apply a pension sharing order to the couple as they have no jurisdiction over schemes managed by UK firms. It is also expected that the French divorce settlement will see the wife receive minimal maintenance and a share of the husband's French assets only.

Despite his wife's claims in The Telegraph that she is about to "run out of money to pay the rent" and that the situation is "horrendous" for her and her daughters, the husband says that he has paid all maintenance payments due under the interim order and now that French courts have jurisdiction he is awaiting full clarification of his wife's financial situation before making any further payments.

The wife's divorce solicitors said of the potential divorce financial settlement, "It is particularly unjust that [the husband's] retirement pension can be enjoyed by him without any obligation to split it, as an English court would no doubt order."