Abbey Law successfully defended the Respondent Husband in all claims made by the Wife for financial relief following a divorce in Egypt and a post nuptial settlement.
The Husband and Wife married in 2007, in Egypt. Both had Egyptian and British nationality. However, prior to divorce their main residence was solely in Egypt.
In 2009, the Wife gave birth to the parties’ son, A. In 2012, the Wife and A moved to the UK in order for the Wife to obtain British citizenship. The Husband’s case was that he had always intended for the move to be temporary and of no more than three or four years’ duration.
Both parties divorced in December 2015, and an Egyptian Divorce agreement was entered in to. The terms of the agreement were, the Husband had agreed to pay the Wife a lump sum of EGP 5 million, to allow her to live in his central London flat, to make maintenance payments of £5,000 pcm and continue to make the mortgage payments and A’s private school fees.
The Wife submitted an application under Part III of the Matrimonial and Financial Proceedings Act 1984 on the assertion that the Husband was worth US$100 million. She focused on his three central London properties and a yacht moored in Egypt.
The Husband’s father and two sisters intervened in the proceedings to assert their beneficial interests in the Husband’s assets. The Wife’s case was that the documents adduced in evidence were fraudulent, alternatively a sham. The Wife asserted that there was manipulation of metadata when creating the documents and that the Husband’s Egyptian lawyers and accountant were part of this conspiracy.
Mrs Justice Roberts heard evidence from all five parties plus a handwriting expert and two Egyptian lawyers and Egyptian accountant. The issues which were considered were of gifts, express, resulting and constructive trusts as well as the validity of the Egyptian divorce agreement. The Wife asserted that she was not bound by the Egyptian agreement because she was pressured into signing the document and it was not Radmacher compliant. The Judge disagreed with this and found that the agreement was “fair and likely to survive a Radmacher health check”.
Mrs Justice Roberts applied the Court of Appeal case of Zimin v Zimina [2017] EWCA 1249 and upheld the Respondents’ defence. The Husband was ordered to comply with his open proposal which embodied the terms of the Egyptian divorce agreement. To read the full judgment please Click Here.
Abbey Law were pleased with the outcome. The case was run by our experienced family solicitor Afsana Akhtar.