Hong Kong’s highest court ruled that a city businessman must pay his former wife half his wealth, upholding a 2008 decision that asset splits in divorces should be based on a principle of equal division.
Hong Kong’s highest court ruled that a city businessman must pay his former wife half his wealth, upholding a 2008 decision that asset splits in divorces should be based on a principle of equal division.
“To confine a non-working wife’s award to the sum needed to meet her ‘reasonable requirements’ and to permit the husband to keep the remaining assets is patently unfair and discriminatory,” Justice Roberto Ribeiro of the Court of Final Appeal wrote in a 52-page judgment upholding an award of HK$2.68 million ($346,000) to the ex-wife.
The businessman, whose identity can’t be reported, sought to reverse a 2008 Hong Kong Court of Appeal ruling that adopted the principle of equal asset splitting. Prior to the decision, judges in the former British colony had wider discretion on how to distribute assets based on individual needs. A 2001 ruling in the U.K. required judges use an equal split as a starting point.
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