Divorce case involving the impact of a former pre-nuptial agreement which the parties had signed in Germany – July 09

A German wife and French husband had signed a pre-nuptial agreement valid under German law.  They then divorced in the UK and the court awarded husband £5.6m even though the pre-nuptial agreement stated that neither would seek mainteannce form the other party in the event of divorce.  The wife appealed the decision.

On appeal the court consdiered that the lower court had not given sufficient weight to the existence of the agreement, although the court still provided the husband with some housing and other funds to reflect shared residence of parties’ children.  The appeal court made the following statement "in future cases broadly in line with the present case on the facts, the judge should give due weight to the marital property regime into which the parties freely entered. This is not to apply foreign law, nor is it to give effect to a contract foreign to English tradition. It is, in my judgment, a legitimate exercise of the very wide discretion that is conferred on the judges to achieve fairness between the parties to the ancillary relief proceedings. "

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