10th February 2011

A complex divorce financial settlement dispute between estranged family members has resulted in the intervention of the Court of Appeal, the Cumberland News and Star reports.

The divorce of a successful hotelier and property tycoon and his business-partner wife, in 2009 after more than 40 years of marriage, saw the assets split just months before the wife's sudden death.

A family court judge had awarded the husband £5,726,035 while the wife received £5,180,690. The wife was allowed to stay in the family home in Windermere, where she hoped to retire, and her ex-husband agreed she would be indemnified of any of the couple's business liabilities. Two months later the ex-wife died

Yet, a 2004 compensation claim, made by the parents of a girl who suffered a catastrophic fall from one of the couple's Manchester flats, has caused the divorce settlement to be re-evaluated as appeal court judges have ruled that the ex-wife's estate must bear some responsibility for the payment of compensation to the young girl who suffered life-altering brain damage in the fall.

The 71-year-old ex-husband's plight became apparent when business insurers refused to cover a compensation payment to the injury victim and he subsequently decided to take his son, who had inherited his ex-wife's estate, to court.

The Court of Appeal judge has now ruled that £1 million should be deducted from the divorce financial settlement amount, which formed the son's inheritance, to be deposited into an account held by the court pending a decision in the personal injury compensation claim.