Divorcee requests appeal against 'unfair' settlement
05 Mar 2010
The owner of a stately home in Oxfordshire has requested permission
to appeal against a divorce ruling which would see him having to
sell the property.
Erik Maurice Robson, 66, and his wife Chloe separated last year and
was told that he must pay her a GBP 8 million lump sum as part of
the divorce settlement.
He was also ordered to sell Kiddington Hall in order to facilitate
this and to split their assets quickly.
However, Mr Robson has argued against this, claiming that the hall
was inherited from his parents and as such was not accrued during
the 25-year marriage.
He also maintains that it is unfair because the judge made the
ruling based on the property's GBP 16 million value in 2009, not
the GBP 13.18 million it is worth today following the slump in
property prices.
Mr Robson now wants a hearing to allow him to appeal against the
original ruling and overturn it in court.
Last month, an heiress was ordered to pay GBP 5 million of her own
assets to her estranged husband after he also lost assets as a
result of the property market slump.
Today's news could raise further debate about the relevance of
pre-nuptial agreements - according to a recent survey cited in the
Mirror, four-fifths of solicitors think they are an effective way
of protecting assets in case of divorce, even though they are not
currently binding under English law.
