Special contribution

Charman v Charman [2007] EWCA Civ 503; [2007] All ER (D) 425 (May); NLJ 8 June

The parties had been married for 30 years and had two children aged 24 and 20. The wife had worked full-time until her first pregnancy. The husband had enjoyed an extremely successful career in insurance in which he had amassed wealth of over £120m. The wife conceded that the husband’s contribution had been of such significance as to justify his departure from the marriage with a greater proportion of the assets than should be awarded to her. The judge divided the assets 63.5:36.5 in the husband’s favour resulting in the wife receiving assets of £48m (25/ LL p92). The husband appealed on the ground that the judge had made insufficient allowance for his special contribution because he had approached it in the wrong way by beginning with a hypothesis of equal division and then factoring the husband’s special contribution into the equation by way of a discount, whereas he should have allowed for the husband’s special contribution in the course of the exercise mandated by s25(2) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. Had he done so, then, after conducting the necessary cross-check against the yardstick of equality, he would have awarded less to the wife.