Magnate to appeal divorce payment
Insurance magnate John Charman has vowed to challenge an order to pay his former wife a total of £48 million in what is believed to be the biggest divorce award in English legal history.
Mr Charman, 53, said in a statement that he believed the ruling by Mr Justice Coleridge in the Family Division of the High Court in London was "unfair and unreasonable" and immediately announced his intention to appeal.
Details of the judge's ruling, given in private last week, have been made public. The payout to Beverley Charman, also 53, is believed to be the highest awarded to a wife in the English divorce courts in a contested case.
The total sum of £48 million includes £8 million of assets already in her name. Mr Charman, who is based in Bermuda and America, was ordered to pay her a lump sum of £40 million.
In percentage terms, the judge held this to be just under 37% of the assets, which he found amounted to just over £131 million, including trust assets.
Mr Charman commented in a statement: "This judgment is poor and blatantly discriminatory. The size of the award is grotesque and unfair. By any reasonable standards this is an extraordinary decision. I will appeal this decision."
Mrs Charman, who gave up paid employment before the birth of the first of their two sons in May 1982 and is now a magistrate, did not want to comment on the ruling, a spokeswoman for her solicitors, Manches, said.
The couple were married in 1976, when neither had significant resources. They separated in November 2003 and divorced in April last year. Mrs Charman continues to live in the former matrimonial home, Dell House in Sevenoaks, Kent, which is valued at £2.75 million.
During their 29-year marriage, Mr Charman had a hugely successful career and built up considerable wealth in the insurance market in the City of London.
Mr Charman had contended that, whatever the size of the matrimonial assets, his wife should be awarded substantially less than an equal share by virtue of his "unique and exceptional contribution to their creation and his importance in the global insurance market".
