A British woman left almost penniless by divorce goes to the Supreme Court this week in a case that will test London’s reputation as the divorce capital of the world.

Sikirat Agbaje, 68, is challenging a divorce award made in her native Nigeria and upheld by the Court of Appeal in London that left her with just under £7,000.

Her former husband, Olusola, 71, a barrister to whom she was married for 40 years, took £616,000, including two properties in London.

But Mrs Agbaje, of New Barnet, North London, argues that the divorce in 2005 should have been heard in Britain, where she would be entitled to a far bigger share of the assets.

She was successful in the High Court in London, where she was awarded £275,000, only for her former husband to take the case to the Court of Appeal, which to ruled that the original Nigerian award should stand.

Now, after several court hearings and rulings by six senior judges in London, at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds’ legal aid, the case is going before the Supreme Court.

It is being keenly watched by family lawyers who say that the original divorce award, which will leave her without a home, is an “appalling injustice”.

But there is growing concern about London’s reputation as the divorce capital of the world and the way that wives in international marriages choose to divorce here because they will do better than abroad.

The couple, who have five children, all born in Britain, were born in Nigeria and came to England in the early 1960s. They met in December 1965 and married in 1967, acquiring British citizenship in 1972.

In 1973, Mr Agbaje returned to Nigeria and his wife and children followed the next year, establishing their home and life mainly in Nigeria. They separated in 1999 and at that time, Mrs Agbaje says, she came back to England and set up home.

Her husband then began divorce proceedings in the High Court in Lagos, Nigeria, and four months later Mrs Agbaje issued divorce proceedings in England.

At the High Court in London, Mr Justice Ryder said there was “no evidence that substantial justice cannot be obtained by the wife in the courts of Nigeria” and the divorce award was subsequently made in Lagos.

Mrs Agbaje then lodged fresh proceedings and won permission in London’s High Court to apply for financial relief under the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984, after an overseas divorce.

The judge, Mr Justice Munby, said that he was satisfied that there were “exceptional circumstances” in the case and that she would suffer “hardship — real hardship — if I do not give leave”.

The case then led to Mr Justice Coleridge awarding her a housing fund of £225,000, saying her primary need was for a home. He ordered the sale of a property in London that is in the husband’s name, with 65 per cent of the proceeds to be given to Mrs Agbaje.

Mark Harper, a leading family lawyer with Withers, the City law firm, said: “This raises important issues as to when English views of fairness and hardship should apply when a foreign divorce is granted to a couple with significant English connections.

“The Court of Appeal [which ruled against her] clearly wants to reduce forum shopping and begin to change London being the divorce capital of the world.”

Dismissing Mrs Agbaje’s case in the Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Ward said that “sadly, compassion is not the test”, adding that he did “feel sorry” for the wife’s “parlous plight” which means that she will be homeless and penniless unless her appeal to the Supreme Court succeeds.

Source : The Times

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