Griffiths v Dawson & Company
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 18 March 1993 |
| Date | 18 March 1993 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
Queen's Bench Division
Before Mr Justice Ewbank
Solicitor - negligence - financial provision in matrimonial proceedings
A solicitor, acting for a wife who was being divorced on the ground of separation after a long marriage to a man in pensionable employment, was negligent if he failed to make an application under section 10 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 to protect the wife's financial position.
Mr Justice Ewbank, sitting as an additional judge of the Queen's Bench Division, so held when giving judgment for the plaintiff, Sigrid Griffiths, and awarding her £19,512 damages plus costs in an action against her former solicitors, Dawson & Co, of Lincoln's Inn, London, for negligence in the conduct of her divorce case.
Mr James Davis for the plaintiff; Mr Simon King for the defendants.
MR JUSTICE EWBANK said that in ordinary divorce cases the fact that a wife might lose her widow's pension was not usually significant. The event was usually a long way ahead and the amounts were comparatively small.
Every so often, however, a solicitor was consulted by a wife in late middle age who had been married for many years to a man in pensionable employment and who was being divorced against her will on the ground of separation.
The question was what a competent solicitor should do when consulted by a wife in such circumstances in order to protect her financial position.
In his Lordship's judgment the first step was to file an application under section 10 of the 1973 Act. Most applications did not lead to a hearing before the court but the effect of...
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Arthur J S Hall & Company (Respondent/Plaintiff) v Melvyn Keith Simons
...62 ALJR 611, Aust HC. Green v Rozen [1955] 2 All ER 797, [1955] 1 WLR 741. Griffin v Kingsmill [1998] PIQR P24. Griffiths v Dawson & Co[1993] 2 FCR 515. Harris (formerly Manahan) v Manahan[1997] 2 FCR 607, [1996] 4 All ER 454, CA. Hunter v Chief Constable of the West Midlands Police [1982] ......
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Brooks v Brooks
...[1927] P 64. Brown v Brown [1959] P 86; [1959] 2 WLR 776; [1959] 2 All ER 266. Dormer v Ward [1901] P 20. Griffiths v Dawson & Co[1993] 2 FCR 515. Lort-Williams v Lort-Williams [1951] P 395; [1951] 2 All ER 241. Marsh v Marsh (1878) 39 LT 107, 545. Worsley v Worsley (1869) LR 1 P & D 648. J......