Helliwell v Entwistle [2025] EWCA Civ 1055
In the Court of Appeal, Deborah Bangay KC and Lydia Newman-Saville, instructed by Michael Chapman and Grace Matthews of JMW Solicitors LLP, successfully represented the husband in setting aside a pre-nuptial agreement (‘the PNA’).
Centrally, the court was concerned with whether the PNA was vitiated by the wife’s failure to provide full and frank disclosure at the time it was reached. Whilst it remains, per Radmacher, that disclosure is desirable but not essential, the PNA recorded that the parties had both provided disclosure that was ‘substantially complete in all material respects’. The wilful breach of that term, such that the presentation made by the wife bore no resemblance to her true wealth, set the case apart from the general rule in Radmacher and amounted to material, fraudulent non-disclosure.
Whilst the Court of Appeal is usually reluctant to make findings of fact, or go behind those of the trial judge, they unanimously concluded that the wife’s failure to disclose c.70% of her assets at the time of the agreement was both ‘deliberate’ and ‘fraudulent’. As a result, the effect of the agreement was negated.
The matter has been remitted to the High Court for a fresh consideration of the husband’s needs.
