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22 March 2010
Issue: 7409 / Categories: Legal News
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Ruling on Agbaje divorce

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The Supreme Court has ruled that a divorce settlement reached in a Nigerian court would have caused “real hardship” to the wife and ordered that she be awarded a more generous settlement by an English court.

The Supreme Court has ruled that a divorce settlement reached in a Nigerian court would have caused “real hardship” to the wife and ordered that she be awarded a more generous settlement by an English court.

Agbaje v Agbaje concerned a Nigerian-born couple who were married for 38 years and who acquired UK citizenship in 1972. They owned property in England but mainly lived in Nigeria. Since the couple separated in 1999, Mrs Agbaje has lived in England.

The Nigerian court awarded Mrs Agbaje a property in Lagos worth about £86,000 and a lump sum worth about £21,000. She sought relief under Part III of the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984, which gives the English court power to grant financial relief where a marriage is dissolved in a foreign country.

Five Supreme Court justices restored the order of the

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