Wife wins $700,000 divorce fighting fund
A woman has been awarded $700,000 to help fight her husband in a multimillion-dollar divorce case.
It has been billed as a David v Goliath battle, and will possibly be one of the largest divorce cases in the country, when Sophie and Tim Biggs go head to head this month.
But before that matter, set down in the High Court at Auckland for three weeks, the former Queenstown-based couple locked horns in the Court of Appeal earlier this month.
Sophie Biggs’ counsel, Lady Deborah Chambers QC, argued for her client to receive a further interim distribution from businessman and trader Tim Biggs.
Chambers made an impassioned plea for ‘‘equality of arms’’, so her own bill and others could be paid. The Court of Appeal agreed, ordering Tim Biggs to pay $700,000 ‘‘without delay’’.
At the centre of the dispute was the sale of a luxury Queenstown home, with Sophie Biggs also wanting a share of some of her husband’s assets, which increased during their five-year marriage. The home was worth millions, but exact figures are suppressed while it awaits sale.
The judgment noted that Sophie Biggs had incurred costs of a little more than $1 million, which she could not pay from her own resources.
It noted she was the primary caregiver of three young children, of which one child was with Tim Biggs, and had no independent income.
The Court of Appeal agreed it was not reasonable that Sophie Biggs’ advisers continued to bear the entire burden of funding her claim. The decision noted those costs include almost $500,000 to her legal team, both in New Zealand and Australia, and almost $500,000 to her accountant.
Sophie Biggs, in a previous submission to the High Court, likened the legal battle to ‘‘a classic case of David v Goliath’’.
‘‘I should be adequately resourced so I can prosecute this litigation. Tim is able to do so. So should I. That is not only fair, it supports the notion of equality between men and women.’’