Myerson v Myerson: judgment in full

A City tycoon whose wealth has shrunk in the recession failed yesterday to secure a reduction in his £11.2 million divorce settlement.

Brian Myerson, 50, had claimed that since he agreed to pay his former wife, Ingrid, a sculptor, 43 per cent of his fortune in March last year the value of his shares had been substantially wiped out. Instead of receiving £14.6 million from total assets that were then valued at £25.8 million, he would now get nothing — and be half a million pounds out of pocket.

Three judges in the Court of Appeal dismissed his challenge yesterday, saying that the “natural process of price fluctuation, however dramatic”, did not satisfy the legal test for a change in a settlement.

The ruling is a blow to many wealthy divorcees who were hoping to renegotiate their settlements. Lawyers said that a victory for Mr Myerson would have led to a “mad scrum” in the family courts.

A spokesman for the tycoon said: “Mr Myerson is disappointed that the court failed to recognise that the economic downturn had rendered his divorce settlement unfair. The aim of Mr Myerson’s appeal has always been to ensure that the division of assets with his ex-wife was equitable and he will now take his appeal to the House of Lords.”

Mr Myerson still has the right to seek to vary his maintenance payments to his former wife and the spokesman confirmed that he would return in July to the High Court to seek to cancel those.

Under the original settlement, completed in March last year, Mr Myerson agreed to pay his wife 43 per cent of the marital assets. Mrs Myerson, who lives in her family’s £5 million home in Hampstead, North London, is to receive £9.5 million in cash instalments over four years and a property in South Africa worth £1.5 million.

Mr Myerson agreed that he would keep his shares, largely in his company Principle Capital Investment Trust. Martin Pointer, QC, representing him, had told the judges: “The husband’s case is that the unforeseeable and unforeseen combination of forces at play within the global economy has undermined the assumptions upon which the order was made.”

The wife’s share of the total assets under the order would be 105 per cent and the husband’s would be minus 5 per cent, Mr Pointer said. “It could be worse than that,” he added.

The couple, who married in December 1982 and who have two sons and a daughter, divorced soon after the settlement last year.

Mr Myerson is an investor whose company has offices around the world. His spokesman said: “At no point have these proceedings affected Principle Capital Holdings or its associated companies, where it remains business as usual.”

The divorce settlement was on the basis that his wife would get cash and Mr Myerson would keep all the shares in his company.

Lord Justice Thorpe said that the principles governing an application to set aside a divorce settlement on the ground of a subsequent event had been clearly established in the courts. The appeal failed not just on those principles but also because the order was not imposed but agreed jointly.

“The husband, with all the knowledge, both public and private, agreed to an asset division which left him captain of the ship, certain to keep for himself whatever profits or gains his enterprise and experience would achieve in the years ahead.”

The case was being carefully watched by divorce lawyers because of its implications. Joe Vaitilingam, a partner at Hughes Fowler Carruthers, said: “Be it boom or bust, the Court of Appeal has stuck by its guns in refusing to allow long-established divorce law to be rewritten by Brian Myerson. This is a decision which has averted the turmoil in the Family Court which would have resulted from the mad scrum of others seeking to piggy-back on this case if the decision had gone with him.”

For richer... and poorer

— The founder of the French Connection clothing chain, Stephen Marks, is rumoured to have paid his former wife, Ailsa, about £50 million when their marriage ended in 2004

— In 2006, John Charman, nicknamed “the king of London insurance”, was ordered to pay £48 million to his wife of 30 years, Beverley

— Sir Martin Sorrell, head of the WPP advertising company, sold £12.5 million in shares in 2005 to fund the £30 million payment to his former spouse

— Phil Collins, the musician, agreed to pay his third wife, Orianne Cevey, £25 million after six years of marriage ended last year. He has paid out more than £42 million in three divorce settlements

— Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney ended an acrimonious two-year divorce case with Heather Mills last year, agreeing to pay her £24.3 million

Source: Times Archive, Forbes

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