Foster v Foster [2003]

JurisdictionEngland & Wales
Judgment Date16 April 2003
Date16 April 2003
CourtCourt of Appeal (Civil Division)

COURT OF APPEAL

Before Lord Justice Peter Gibson, Lord Justice Chadwick and Lady Justice Hale

Foster
and
Foster

Matrimonial law - financial settlement on divorce - assessing parties' contributions

Assessing each contribution

There were no special principles applicable to assessing contributions made by parties in a short, childless marriage where both were working.

When the court looked at financial contributions it was not limited to considering merely the amounts contributed but it could take into account such factors as the part each party played in acquiring and realising assets in the name of one or other of the parties and the fact that each party contributed what he or she could from his or her financial resources.

The Court of Appeal so stated when allowing the appeal of Stephen Thomas Foster against Judge Peter Thompson in Chelmsford County Court on September 27, 2002, who had allowed the appeal of Tracey Jean Foster against a decision on ancillary relief by District Judge Silverwood Cope on May 16, 2002 and had varied the ancillary relief order.

Mr Foster in person; Ms Kerstin Boyd for Mrs Foster.

LADY JUSTICE HALE said that the court gave permission for a second appeal as the case raised the important issue of the proper approach, in the light of White v WhiteELR ((2001) 1 AC 596) and later decisions of the Court of Appeal, to the parties' respective contributions in a short childless marriage where both were working.

The question was whether the district judge had gone so far wrong that the circuit judge was entitled to intervene. The principles applicable on an appeal from district to circuit judge in ancillary relief cases were now the same as those in any other appeal: seeCordle v CordleWLR ((2002) 1 WLR 1441).

The only universal rule was to apply the criteria in section 25(2) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 and to arrive at a fair result that avoided discrimination. The court had wide discretion: see White v White and Lambert v LambertTLRWLR (The Times November 27, 2002; (2003) 2 WLR 631).

Miss Boyd contended that those cases concerned the problem of evaluating the very different contribution of breadwinner and homemaker over a long marriage where there had been children to bring up.

They were of no relevance to a short childless marriage where both parties had been working. The court had to consider the duration of the marriage under section 25(2)(d).

Here the only contributions to be considered under section...

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