A woman’s attempt to claim more money from her former husband after his shares quadrupled in value was blocked by senior judges yesterday.

In a reverse of the recent “credit crunch” cases, in which men have sought to reduce payments to their former wives after falling on hard times, Kim Walkden, 47, had been hoping for a higher maintenance payment from her former husband, Martin, because of the profit he had made.

Mrs Walkden had originally received a lump sum of £225,000, mainly based on the £800,000 value placed on his company at the time of their divorce in 2006.

In August 2007, however, the timber company Triesse, of which he was a major shareholder, was sold for more than £3.7 million. As a result he received 82 per cent of the couple’s assets while Mrs Walkden received 18 per cent, her lawyers argued.

At York County Court in June last year, a judge gave permission for Mrs Walkden to reopen the divorce case, agreeing with her lawyers that a new event had occurred.

Mr Walkden, 47, won his appeal yesterday on the ground that his situation was no different from that of the tycoon Brian Myerson. In that case, a court ruled that it would not vary a divorce settlement even though Mr Myerson’s assets had collapsed because of the credit crisis.

Lord Justice Thorpe, sitting with Lord Justice Wall and Lord Justice Elias at the Court of Appeal, said that Mr and Mrs Walkden, both from Wetherby, West Yorkshire, had agreed a compromise out of court. He handed down his judgment anyway because the issues in the case “were of some general importance”.

Lord Justice Wall said that Mrs Walkden had reached an agreement with her former husband whereby her maintenance payments were converted to a capital sum. Lord Justice Thorpe said that when the deal was struck in January 2007 each side must have taken a view as to the “unknown” and “highly speculative value of the shareholding”, which was “duly reflected in the compromise agreement”.

Lord Justice Wall said that Mrs Walkden was “not obliged” to take the money for the value of the shares, but “she chose to do so”.

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