Ruth Kearns considers the creation of corporate structures in other jurisdictions to frustrate the enforcement of a financial remedy final order ‘Historical terms such as ‘‘façade’’ and ‘‘sham’’ in fact refer respectively to two separate and distinct principles: the ‘‘concealment principle’’ and the ‘‘evasion principle”.’ It is essential that the parties have confidence that remedies …
Continue reading "Enforcement: Out of reach"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | December 2013 #135The transcript of this judgment is reported in part from para 164 onwards and starts with a discussion of the law. No part of the report provides a factual narrative.
Held (allowing the wife’s claim for financial relief):
The court had power on divorce to order a party to the marriage to transfer to the other party such property as may be so specified to which that party was entitled, either in possession or reversion. In this case almost all the wealth created by the husband during the course of the marriage was held through offshore company structures and the ques...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | September 2013 #132Michael 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...
James Copson considers the implications and practical consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision in Prest ‘Respondents and companies will be looking for ways of rebutting the presumption of a resulting trust – as is clear from Prest the weight of evidence will vary from case to case.’At first glance the Supreme Court ruling in Prest …
Continue reading "Financial Provision: Open and shut case?"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | July/August 2013 #131The appellant trustees appealed from a notice of determination dated 16 February 2010 whereby HMRC refused inheritance tax business property relief on the basis that immediately before the ten-year anniversary on 22 September 2007, none of the property comprised in the settlement was relevant business property for the purposes of s104 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 (IHTA). HMRC contended that the business was excluded under s105(3) IHTA in that it consisted ‘mainly of… making or holding investments’.
The principal asset of the settleme...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | July/August 2013 #131A post-nuptial settlement (being a Jersey discretionary trust) was created by a husband and wife in 1986. The trust owns a Liberian company, which in turn owns a UK company that owns two UK companies. The main company assets are two UK retirement villages. The beneficiaries included the husband and wife and two minor children.
During divorce proceedings the wife applied for a variation of the settlement.
Over the course of proceedings the trustees of the Jersey trust and the companies were all joined as parties. In both cases no application was made for joinder and no not...
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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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 …
Continue reading "Financial Provision: Predictions on Prest"
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Clare Arthurs and Alex Fox reflect on the Supreme Court judgment in Nutritek The Supreme Court clearly declined to extend the circumstances in which the corporate veil may be pierced. The corporate veil has been in the limelight of late. The Court of Appeal in VTB Capital v Nutritek International Corp [2012] kept it drawn …
Continue reading "Company: Dance of the corporate veil"
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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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