Sudden Loss – Credit Crunch Divorce… Ouch!

Synopsis: A city fund manager is attempting to have his March 2008 divorce settlement re-written because of the collapse in the value of his assets.

A report in the Times gives details of a financier, Brian Myerson, who is seeking to overturn the divorce settlement he made in favour of his ex-wife in March 2008. The court order gave Mrs Myerson £11m in cash and property while Mr Myerson kept £15m worth of share in his company. The settlement was designed to be a clean-break.

Since that time the value of Mr Myerson´s shares has fallen from 295p to 20p. He is still due to pay his ex-wife £2.5m that was part of the original settlement. But he claims that he is now worth only £2m, and so would have net assets of minus £0.5m if the original settlement is allowed to stand.

Instead Mr Myerson wants the outstanding £2.5m to be cancelled and his ex-wife to pay him £3.2m in return for some of his shares. Lord Justice Thorpe pointed out that £7m had already been paid to Mrs Myerson and there is a principle that it cannot be recovered.

COMMENT

Mr Myerson took 57% of the assets at the time of the original order, apparently because those assets (the shares) carried an element of risk. We will have to wait for the final outcome of this case – though courts generally do not like to unstitch agreements made in good faith.