Words spoken in conversation during parties’ intimate relationships can assume an unforeseen legal significance when examined years later by the courts. The facts in Rowe v Prance [1999] 2 FLR 787, [1999] All ER (D) 496 serve as a vivid illustration of this.
Sail away
The claimant was a widow who cohabited for 14 years with the defendant, a married man of considerable private means. In 1993, he told the claimant he would divorce his wife and use the proceeds of the sale of the matrimonial home to buy a yacht for them to share and sail around the world. The defendant duly purchased a yacht for £172,000, which was renamed so as to incorporate the parties’ respective names.
The yacht was registered in the defendant’s sole name, the defendant giving the excuse that a joint registration was not possible because the claimant did not possess an ocean master’s certificate. The claimant gave up her rented house and put her
