Civil way: 1 September 2017

The Supreme Court (Lady Hale, Lord Wilson and Lord Hughes) on 8 August 2017 granted the wife in Owens v Owens [2017] EWCA Civ 182, [2017] All ER (D) 23 (Apr) permission to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s refusal to overturn the dismissal of her unreasonable behaviour divorce petition. Judge Tolson QC had decided that the allegations levelled at the ‘old school’ husband who had admitted to having a loud voice, were flimsy, at best. He found that the wife had exaggerated to a significant extent the content and seriousness of incidents which were all at most minor altercations to be expected in a marriage. We can expect an attack on grounds of perverseness, insufficient weight being given to impact on this particular wife, and the judge refraining from making specific findings of fact on each of the wife’s 27 pleaded allegations.

Solicitors for former Financial Ombudsman Walter Merricks on