A woman whose husband died a few hours after their wedding ceremony failed today to stop his former wife inheriting a large chunk of his estate.

Three Court of Appeal judges ruled that Owen Soulsbury’s promise of £100,000 to his former wife, Elizabeth, must be honoured by his widow, Kathleen.

Elizabeth married Mr Soulsbury, a founder of the Skandia savings group, in 1966 and they had three children.

After the marriage broke down in 1986, the husband was ordered to pay periodical payments to his former wife of £12,000 a year plus £2,400 a year maintenance for the younger children.

In 1993, Elizabeth agreed to her former husband’s suggestion that he should cease paying maintenance in return for him leaving her £100,000 on his death.

He married Kathleen on October 10, 2000 at Charing Cross Hospital in London, where he was being treated for leukaemia, and died that evening.

The widow then refused to pay the legacy to the first wife, saying the agreement was unenforceable.

She said her marriage had the effect of invalidating her husband’s will which left the money to Elizabeth.

The appeal judges said Elizabeth could have taken her former husband - who received £565,000 in 1988 when Skandia was floated on the Stock Exchange - to court at any time to recover the unpaid maintenance but chose not to.

Lord Justice Ward said: “Where the promisee has honoured her bargain, the deceased would remain bound to honour his.

“If he failed to provide payment for her on his death, her right to that payment became enforceable by a direct right of action for breach of contract against his estate.”

He said the husband and his former wife had reached a “perfectly valid agreement” and dismissed the widow’s appeal.

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