Prest v Petrodel Resources Ltd & ors [2013] WTLR 1249

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | September 2013 #132

Michael Prest (husband) and Yasmin Prest (wife) were married for 15 years and had four children before the wife petitioned for divorce in March 2008. During the marriage the matrimonial home was in England, though for most of the time the husband was found to be resident in Monaco and there was also a second home in Nevis. Petrodel Resources Ltd (PRL), which was incorporated in the Isle of Man, was the legal owner of the matrimonial home and five other residential properties in the United Kingdom. PRL was part of a group of companies, one of which was the legal owner of two more resident...

Financial Provision: Divisional conflict

Stephen Smith highlights areas of conflict between family law and other divisions and the potential issues that may arise ‘The Supreme Court will decide in Prest whether the need for a fair result on the family issues enables private corporate arrangements to be disrupted and the corporate veil pierced.’ As a family lawyer I, along …
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Financial Provision: Predictions on Prest

Kirstie Law outlines the background in Prest v Prest and the issues before the recent appeal in the Supreme Court In family cases, there is no arm’s length dealing and, if a spouse is able to hide assets behind a corporate structure, a just outcome in financial remedy proceedings may be impossible to obtain. Family …
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Trusts And Divorce: Piercing the corporate veil

Prest shows that family judges must uphold company law when considering what constitutes the matrimonial pot, as James Copson discusses Where Family Division judges have fallen into error time and again has been their reliance on what Cumming-Bruce LJ referred to as ‘abundant authority’ in Nicholas that the veil can be lifted if there are …
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Corporate Assets: Divisional divide

James Copson analyses the impact of Petrodel v Prest and the repercussions for family lawyers Rimer LJ made it clear that the husband helping himself to the companies’ assets did not alter the status of the companies as separate entities from the owner of their shares. The Court of Appeal decision in Petrodel v Prest …
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