Court of Appeal

Published April 30, 2008

Hall v Hall

It was wholly inappropriate for a judge to make an order which he himself acknowledged was plainly wrong.

The Court of Appeal (Lord Justice Thorpe and Lord Justice Wall) so held on March 18, 2008, in allowing an appeal brought by the wife, Teresa Ann Hall, against the decision of Judge Milligan on August 1, 2007, at Basingstoke County Court against the decision of District Judge Fuller on January 2, 2007, refusing to set aside his earlier decision of April 6, 2006, transferring all the matrimonial assets to the husband, Martin Nicholas Hall, on the non-appearance of the wife at the hearing.

LORD JUSTICE THORPE said that the order was seen by the district judge himself as an impermissible one. It was intended by the judge to shock the wife into coming to court to set aside the order.

Unfortunately, she did not apply until November 2006 to set the order aside. At the January hearing the judge did not have the transcript of the earlier hearing and counsel for the husband had changed.

That combination resulted in the district judge dismissing the wife’s application to set aside his earlier order. Judge Milligan then dismissed the wife’s appeal.

The district judge was to be criticised for his original order. While a judge was wholly justified in taking tough measures to get his message across to an avoidant litigant, he had to ensure that there was no risk of an unfair outcome.

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