Ex wins $500,000 for business success

A woman has been awarded $500,000 after claiming she played a part in her estranged husband’s post-breakup business success.

A High Court at Christchurch written decision from Justice Nicholas Davidson said Anne-Marie Findlay claimed she had, through her marriage, made ‘‘significant’’ direct and indirect contributions to Scott Findlay’s prosperity after their breakup. He, however, claimed she had done nothing to contribute to his new companies’ success.

Anne-Marie Findlay left her husband in July 2010. At that time the building business they had both owned for 22 years, Findlay Construction, was on the verge of collapse.

Her husband had started Scott Findlay Builders (SFB) three months prior to try and pick up the pieces from Findlay Construction. Anne-Marie Findlay was a beneficiary of the Scott Findlay Family Trust, which had majority shares in SFB.

Just two months after the Findlays broke up, the damage caused by Canterbury’s magnitude-7.1 earthquake kicked off the region’s construction industry. Scott Findlay Builders signed a large contract with Fletcher Earthquake Recovery (Fletcher EQR) a day before the magnitude-6.3 February 2011 earthquake.

Over the next four years, as the city’s

"He does not want Mrs Findlay and her new partner to benefit."

Justice Davidson

construction industry boomed, Scott Findlay drew a combined $2.4 million in salary from SFB and new company Scott Findlay Builders (2012) (SFB (2012).

At a High Court hearing in February this year, Anne-Marie Findlay said she had made ‘‘significant contributions’’ to SFB’s predecessor, Findlay Construction, in terms of raising the couple’s four children, adding value to the various investment homes the family lived in and agreeing to sell the family property to keep their business afloat.

The decision document, released this week, said the couple and their children lived a ‘‘comfortable life’’ until the global financial crisis of 2008, at which point they’d had to move into Anne-Marie Findlay’s parents’ house.

In 2009 Anne-Marie Findlay agreed to sell the family home in Ilam to prop up the ailing Findlay Construction. It was owned by the family trust, of which she was a beneficiary.

Anne-Marie Findlay also argued she had sacrificed a career in banking to raise their children and when she reentered the workforce years later she had to start again as a teller.

Scott Findlay agreed to ‘‘some provision’’ for his estranged wife but argued, according to Justice Davidson: ‘‘He does not want Mrs Findlay and her new partner to benefit, because they have been leading their own lives and did nothing towards the success of SFB and SFB

(2012).’’

By 2011 Scott Findlay had full custody of the former couple’s three sons and shared custody of their daughter with his wife.

In March 2012 he started SFB (2012) and, as its sole director, sold SFB to SFB

(2012). He did not consult with Anne-Marie Findlay as a beneficiary of the trust that owned SFB.

Justice Davidson found that ‘‘the hurt he [Scott Findlay] felt when Mrs Findlay left the marriage was very much in evidence’’ when he decided to sell SFB and establish a new trust as the owner of SFB

(2012), excluding her as a beneficiary. Davidson ruled that he was entitled to do this.

Justice Davidson said that while SFB was a different company to Findlay Construction, it was evident Anne-Marie Findlay had helped lay the groundwork of Scott Findlay’s first major success with the Fletcher EQR contract.

He determined that Scott Findlay must pay his estranged wife $500,000 from sources he chooses into a trust.