Wife claiming lump sum - claim adjourned pending husband's inheritance - wife's remarriage not precluding her from restoring claim

K (formerly G) v G: FamD (Mr Justice Singer): 28 January 2004

The husband and wife were married in 1989 and had two daughters.

The marriage was terminated in February 1995.

Since the husband stood to inherit a substantial sum of money on the death of his uncle and/or father, the wife's claim in ancillary relief proceedings for a lump sum was adjourned generally to allow her to renew the claim in the light of changed circumstances.

In 1997, the wife remarried but that marriage effectively came to an end in 1999.

The husband's uncle died in 2001 and his share of the estate amounted to a sum in excess of 2.1 million.

The husband resisted the wife's renewed claim for a lump sum on the ground that a wife should not be entitled to resurrect her claim against her first husband after she had remarried.

Philip Cayford QC and Stuart Nichols (instructed by Jeffrey Green Russell) for the wife; Valentine Le Grice QC (instructed by Alexiou Fisher Philipps) for the husband.

Held, giving judgment for the wife, that, although there would be cases where the merits of a restored claim by a remarried spouse were so exiguous that it would be entirely reasonable to dismiss it, in general the remarriage was merely one of the factors to be taken into account; that the wife had made a considerable contribution to the welfare of the parties' children, which was in no way affected or diminished by her remarriage; and that, in the circumstances, neither the fact of, nor any factor deriving from, her defunct second marriage neutralised or negatived the value of her contributions so as to make it unfair that the husband pay her a lump sum.