A wife has been awarded £50,000 a year in maintenance for her three horses in a landmark legal ruling as part of a £1.5 million divorce package. The unidentified woman was awarded the money by three appeal judges in a case, which suggest that a couple’s animals could become the next battleground in expensive divorce cases.
The woman was also awarded a £900,000 lump sum from her husband, an investment banker, so that she could buy a house with enough land to graze the animals. In addition, she was given an overall maintenance package of £80,000 per year, which included £50,000 for the horses.
The couple from Gloucestershire had been married for 11 years and were childless. The judges heard that the horses had almost become a child substitute for the wife, a talented rider who enjoyed eventing. "During the marriage the horses played a major part in the wife’s life with the consent and encouragement of the husband," Sir Mark Potter, Britain's most senior family judge, said.
The animals took on this role "all the more so after she lost a baby in 2001 and the husband gave her a third horse to celebrate their tenth anniversary in 2004, to add to her own two horses which she had bought herself for £20,000 out of a personal inheritance in order to justify her eventing".
The husband had attempted to argue that the wife's needs could be met with a £600,000 house without grazing land. He said the horses were an unjustified extravagance.
But the three appeal judges upheld an original award made in a county court by District Judge Michael Segal, who said the wife's love of horses had been a key part of the couple's lives.
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