Aristocrat’s wife uses English court to boost Scottish divorce payout
AN ARISTOCRAT related to the Duchess of Cornwall has accused his ex-wife of being a divorce tourist for trying to claim maintenance in England – where payouts are usually higher.
Racehorse owner Charles Villiers, 55, and his former wife Emma spent nearly all their married life in Scotland, where their divorce proceedings are being heard.
But he has accused her of ‘trying it on’ by using EU law to get as much as possible in another jurisdiction.
However, her lawyer said she had every right to apply for £10,000-a-month maintenance at the High Court in London to maximise her income.
Under Scottish law, inherited wealth is not included in the assets that are divided after a marriage breaks down, and maintenance payouts generally stop just three years after a divorce is finalised.
In England, however, Mrs Villiers, 58, could secure financial support from her ex-husband for the rest of her life.
Mr Villiers has now challenged her English claim at the Court of Appeal in London. Her lawyer, Timothy Scott QC, said that it didn’t matter that the divorce began in Scotland.
He told the Court of Appeal that, since 2009, EU regulations had changed the ‘historical’ approach that maintenance and divorce had to be dealt with ‘hand in hand’ by the courts of one country.
The maintenance fight in England and the divorce proceedings in Scotland ‘are ships which pass in the night’, he said, adding: ‘As a matter of EU law they have no bearing on each other.’
He said this approach ‘may seem anomalous to English family lawyers’, but claimed it was ‘an unavoidable consequence’ of the interaction of British and EU law.
‘ English courts should not... strain to limit it. It is a feature of our law and it must be accepted and respected where it arises,’ he added. He said Mr Villiers’ accusations of ‘forum shopping’ against his ex-wife were irrelevant, adding: ‘A court either does or does not have jurisdiction... nor is it relevant whether or not one party may be behaving tactically.
‘If more than one jurisdiction is possible, either party is entitled to choose the jurisdiction which they perceive as most favourable.’ Mr Villiers says that if his ex-wife wins, England will become ‘the maintenance capital of the UK’, facing an invasion of divorcees from the other home nations.
The couple married in 1994 and lived at Milton House, an 18th century country manor in Dunbartonshire
‘Anomalous to English lawyers’
for all but one year of their 17-year marriage. The former couple, who have a grown-up daughter, separated in 2012 and began divorce proceedings in Scotland.
The publishing baron and scion of one of England’s oldest families has family links with Camilla through his mother Elizabeth Keppel. After they split up, Mrs Villiers and the couple’s daughter, Clarissa, 20, set up home in Kensington, west London.
Her husband filed for divorce in Scotland in 2014 but, three months later, Mrs Villiers applied to the English courts for financial maintenance. In March 2016, Mrs Justice Parker ruled that the High Court in London had the power to help her, because she was by then ‘habitually resident’ in England.
She ordered Mr Villiers to pay her £5,500 a month to cover interim maintenance and her legal bills.
Michael Horton, representing Mr Villiers, is challenging that ruling, insisting that an English judge had no right to intervene in a Scottish divorce. He said Mr Villiers had had financial problems, and Milton House had been repossessed in 2015. The hearing continues.