An order for sale of a “very superior” family home has been made by a High Court judge in divorce proceedings involving a “hard-working” and “talented” couple.
Ms Justice Nuala Jackson said the man, who remained living in the large mortgage-free family home after he and his wife separated, was “substantially” responsible for a delay of more than seven years in progressing the divorce case initiated by the woman in early 2017.
He has strived to buy the house on terms “most favourable to himself” and to present it “in the most negative light possible” to prospective purchasers, she said.
The man, who previously paid off the mortgage with a redundancy payment, is entitled to seek to purchase the house, which has “gone up greatly” in value, only in the context of a sale on the open market, the judge directed.
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The woman had never seemed to be against him buying her half interest but wanted that to be at full value and without delay, she noted.
The man must also pay half of a €19,000 loan taken out by the woman to pay rent arrears incurred by her since they separated in 2016.
The judge was making proper provision orders in her recently published judgment granting a divorce.
Both the man and woman, whose children are now adults, are employed and had a “most comfortable” lifestyle over their marriage spanning almost three decades, the judge noted.
The woman alleged the man had held a “very large” cash sum arising from works carried out by him for cash over years but he disputed his cash earnings were anywhere near the level suggested.
The judge found there was a cash income over the years, it was retained within the family home and used for “exceptional and luxury” expenditure. She accepted such works are no longer being carried out by the man or, if they are, are “most modest”.
She considered it “highly unlikely” he would be storing large cash sums in a “remote and insecure” storage location as was suggested.
On balance, the judge considered the woman had been truthful in relation to her accounts. While some transactions by the man did not have “a full paper trail”, she believed sums in his savings accounts consisted of a cashed-in pension, a return of funds loaned by him to a relative, and various savings.
The judge directed the man and woman will retain their own “modest” private pensions and that savings in various accounts should be divided equally between them.
Earlier in her judgment, she said the delay in the case was “entirely unreasonable”.
The woman blamed the man, for reasons including his “huge” delay of some four years in filing a defence and counterclaim and the “multiple” motions she had to bring over issues including vouching of his assets.
The man blamed the woman, saying he wanted at all times to buy her interest in the family home, she would not engage and altered her position numerous times. He also pointed to some delay as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The judge found “substantial, but perhaps not total” responsibility for the delay rested with the man. The delay operated to his advantage as he was living in the unencumbered family home, she said.
Settlement efforts were not a reason for not taking usual steps in family law cases, she said. An “important” settlement document in 2017, signed only by the man, showed both sides then envisaged a sale of the family home with equal division of the proceeds and recognised the equality of their positions within the marriage.
Had that “sensible” agreement been acted upon “much would have been saved in terms of legal expenses and litigation trauma”, she said.
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