IT’S A LOTTERY

Mr Nigel Page won 56 million on the euro lottery some time ago. 

Ten years earlier Mr Page’s wife had left him and they were subsequently divorced.

Mr Page bought Mrs Page’s interest in their house at the time of divorce and he paid maintenance to support their daughter Ella who was three years old at the time.

Fortunately for Mrs Page she did not re-marry and when she learned of Mr Page’s lottery win she sought legal advice as to whether she had any claim.  If she had re-married then she would definitely not have had a claim and neither would she have been able to make any claim if the Court had made an order at the time of divorce to the effect that neither party had any remaining financial claims against the other apart from child support. This is known as a ‘clean break’ order. 

There had been no clean break in Mrs Page’s case; she had not remarried and she therefore had the right to ask the Court to make an order in her favour.  

It seems from the press reports that Mr Page agreed to pay his former wife 2 million pounds in an out of Court settlement.

This of course was an extreme case but if the amount had been substantially lower the principle would have been the same.  Unless there was a ‘clean break’ at the time of the divorce then one of the parties could come back for more money many years later.