Sharp proves exception to the equal sharing principle

The Court of Appeal heard that both parties earned about £100,000 during their six-year relationship but the wife, a trader, received bonuses worth £10.5m, in Sharp v Sharp [2017] EWCA Civ 408. The couple, in their early 40s with no children, had matrimonial assets of £5.45m at the time of the divorce.

The High Court awarded the husband capital worth £2.75m. Ms Sharp appealed. Lord Justice McFarlane, giving the lead ruling, noted that the principle that the matrimonial assets of a divorcing couple should normally be shared between them on an equal basis was established by the House of Lords in the 2001 case of White v White. ‘The present appeal requires this court to consider whether that is inevitably the case where the marriage has been short, there are no children, the couple have both worked and maintained separate finances, and where one of them has been paid very substantial bonuses during their time together,’ he said.

The court held that the circumstances of the marriage were sufficient to depart from the equal sharing principle, and ordered that the husband receive a lump sum of £900,000 plus a property valued at £1.1m.

Jacqueline Major, head of the family team at Hodge Jones & Allen, said: ‘The starting point in all financial provision cases is 50/50 but this is just a “yardstick of equality”, which can shift and be moved in certain circumstances. ‘In this case, the judge made it clear that he would change the percentage division because this was a short marriage, there were no children involved, pre-marital wealth was brought to the marriage by Ms Sharp, and there was no joint approach to finances throughout the marriage. All of [this], the Court of Appeal said, justified the departure from 50/50 provision.’