Trusts and divorce

There has been much press coverage of the decision of the Supreme Court in Wyatt v Vince (2015) UKSC 14. The case was, as was sad by Lord Wilson, giving the judgment of the court, an unusual one. The parties had been married in December 1981. The wife already had a child by another man, who provided no financial support. A son was born to the parties. Early in 1984 the husband moved out. The husband then became a ‘new age traveller’. Neither of the parties had substantial earnings, and in 1992 the wife issued a divorce petition, with decree absolute being granted in October 1992. One of the features of the case was that the court file relating to the divorce has apparently been mislaid, and neither of the parties had any documentation relating to the divorce. In particular, there was no documentation relating to any application by the wife for financial provision. Lord Wilson held that she probably had applied for such provision in the petition, but that in view of the financial circumstances of the husband at that time no order was made. He held that although it was possible that a nominal order might have been made, or the application could have even been dismissed, the latter would have been extremely unlikely unless the husband had made a capital payment, particularly as the wife was a young mother. The main human interest in the story was what happened after the divorce summarised as follows by Lord Wilson: