Ex-Wife Granted Permission To Appeal Divorce Settlement

Alison Sharland, aged 46, has been granted permission to appeal the Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold her divorce settlement after her ex-husband was found to have concealed the true value of his Company.

Ms Sharland received £10.355 million whilst Mr Sharland was to walk away with £5.64 million in addition to the sale proceeds from his Company. His Company was supposedly worth between £31.5 million and £47.25 million but it was later revealed that it in fact had an estimated value of almost 12 times more. 

Ms Sharland, who is the primary carer of the parties’ disabled child, attempted to re-open her case in the High Court on the basis that Mr Sharland had been dishonest but failed to do so. Sir Hugh Bennett found that had the information been revealed earlier this would not have made a large impact on the settlement.

She then appealed to the Court of Appeal but this was refused and a Costs Order was made against her. Lord Justice Moore-Bick and Lady Justice Macur commented that it would have been wrong to re-open the proceedings despite Mr Sharland’s “material fraud”.

Ms Sharland has now been given permission to fight her case in the Supreme Court. Mr Sharland is not denying that he mislead the Court but his case is that the divorce settlement was just and fair even given the high value of his Company.