Nicholas Wilkinson and Calum Smith, instructed by Beverley Morris of HCR Law, successfully represented the husband in BM v MB & Ors (Financial Provision: Identification of Marital Assets/Avoidance of Disposition Order) [2025] EWFC 129, a decision which followed a complex 7-day trial in the High Court.
Despite the wife seeking half of the £15m asset base, Nicholas and Calum secured a departure in the husband’s favour of £4.35m and a costs order against the wife.
The case involved a complicated entanglement of martial and non-martial property and the setting aside of assets settled into trust and transferred into a Limited Liability Partnership.
Whilst the judge found that the s.37 test had been met, Nicholas and Calum persuaded the court that shares in the family company which had been inherited during the marriage and subsequently increased in value had not been matrimonialised. Instead, the judge held that the inherited value and passive growth should be ring-fenced and the uplift in value referrable to matrimonial endeavour shared.
The judgment is noteworthy for its analysis of Standish v Standish [2024] EWCA Civ 567, s.37 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 and the reiteration that parties must negotiate reasonably and openly or risk being punished in costs.
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