Justified departure from equality >>
Assets brought to marriage
pre-acquired assets
In two recent cases, the court has highlighted the principle that pre-acquired assets, whether inherited or built up prior to the marriage, should be treated differently from other assets and may justify a departure from equality.
B v B [2008] EWCA Civ 543, [2008] All ER (D) 282 (Mar)
This case, heard by the president and by Lords Justices Wall and Hughes, was an appeal by the wife from earlier decisions that did not take into account the fact that the entirety of the parties’ assets derived from money that she had inherited long before she commenced her relationship with the husband.
Background
The parties began cohabiting in 1989, and married in 1992. They separated in 2004. They had one child, a son born in 1992.
The wife had inherited substantial sums from her father when she was a child. When the parties met she was living partly on inheritance and partly on earnings. She also rented out a flat, in a building she owned in Chelsea. The husband was earning £250
