Husband fails to persuade court to tear up prenuptial agreement

It is now well known that the courts of England and Wales will give effect to a prenuptial agreement that is freely entered into by each party with a full appreciation of its implications, unless in the circumstances it would be unfair to hold the parties to the agreement.

And a recent case provides an excellent example of this approach.

The case concerned a wife’s financial remedies application, following a short, childless, marriage.

On the day that the parties married, they signed a prenuptial agreement which provided that each party should retain their own separate property, that any jointly owned property would be split between them, and that neither party would bring a claim against the other.

On the hearing of her application the wife disclosed assets of approximately £61.5 million. The husband, meanwhile, disclosed assets of approximately £850,000.

The wife claimed that, in view of the prenuptial agreement, she should pay the husband nothing.

The husband, on the other hand, argued that he should not be held to the terms of the prenuptial agreement claiming (amongst other things) that the wife assured him that he would always be provided for. He therefore sought a settlement of about £2.4 million.

Hearing the application, Mr Justice Francis did not agree that the husband should not be held to the terms of the prenuptial agreement. He said:

“It is ridiculous, I am afraid, to say on the one hand, “I am signing this and I am recording on the face of it that I know what I am doing, I know what the consequences of it are, I know I get nothing”, and yet, on the other hand, like a child with his fingers crossed behind his back, say “It will be all right really.” That is not the way that prenuptial agreements, documents of this kind, work.”

In short, he said, he was “not going to tear up the prenuptial agreement”.

Instead, he merely looked at what provision, if any, should be made by the wife for the husband’s reasonable needs, and assessed this in the sum of £455,000, which is what he awarded the husband.

But that was not the end of the matter. Mr Justice Francis also ordered the husband to pay £75,000 towards the wife’s legal costs, such sum to be deducted from the £455,000 award.

All in all, a demonstration of the approach of the court to prenuptial agreements, and the perils of challenging an agreement.

You can read the main judgment in the case here, and the costs judgment here.

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