Last updated on June 29th, 2017 at 10:13 am
The court has allowed the appeal of a woman who says she did not receive enough money following the dissolution of her civil partnership, due to her ex-partner failing to disclose the extent of her wealth.
Breadwinner argued finances diminished in financial proceedings
Helen Roocroft and Carol Ainscow were together for 18 years prior to the breakdown of their relationship. Ainscow, a property developer, was the breadwinner (even featuring on The Times Rich List in 2009) but argued following separation in 2010 that her finances had been seriously diminished by the global recession. Roocroft didn’t believe this but didn’t have the funds to challenge the claim and accepted a settlement of £200,000.
Misrepresentation of wealth
Ainscow later died and Roocroft claimed the estate was worth much more than the court had been led to believe in 2010. She took legal action against a representative of Ainscow’s estate and applied for the court to set aside the original order. She argued that Ainscow had misrepresented her wealth, but was unsuccessful at the first hearing as the judge ruled she had entered into the original deal with her eyes open.
High profile non-disclosure cases cited
Roocroft then took her case to the Court of Appeal, and cited recent high profile non-disclosure cases such as Sharland v Sharland and Gohil v Gohil, in both of which the Supreme Court found that the wives could appeal their settlements due to the husbands having withheld the true extent of their wealth. The Court of Appeal found in her favour and ruled that the case should be reanalysed by a High Court judge.
Eleanor Hopwood
Reassessment of more financial proceedings cases possible
This judgement confirms that same-sex couples have the same rights in law as heterosexual couples and reaffirms the approach taken by the court in Sharland and Gohil, which will potentially lead to more of these cases being brought in situations where it comes to light that one party has failed to fully disclose the extent of their assets.
You can find out more about financial settlements on divorce or dissolution of civil partnerships on our website.
Eleanor Hopwood, family law solicitor
