Wife’s death within two months of order

Reid v Reid [2004] 1 FLR 736

The wife died two months after the making of a consent order under which the husband would receive 60% of the net proceeds of sale of the parties’ former matrimonial home. Was this a supervening event justifying granting permission to appeal out of time? For an appeal to succeed, the new event must invalidate the basis, or a fundamental assumption, upon which the order was made, it must have occurred within a relatively short time, application for permission to appeal must be made promptly, third parties should not be prejudiced, and the event must not have been reasonably foreseeable. Hypothetically, it is foreseeable that any wife has only a limited period to live, but in the circumstances of the present case, her death within a mere two months was not foreseeable and met the other criteria. The husband was given permission to appeal and his share of the net proceeds of the former matrimonial home was increased to 75%.