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	England and Wales High Court (Family Division) Decisions
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales High Court (Family Division) Decisions >> Mann v Mann [2014] EWHC 1801 (Fam) (12 May 2014) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Fam/2014/1801.html Cite as: [2014] EWHC 1801 (Fam)

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
FAMILY DIVISION

		Royal Courts of Justice
		12th May 2014

MR. JUSTICE MOSTYN:

1. This is the restored application for enforcement. I refer to my previous judgment given on 5^th March 2014, [2014] EWHC 537 (Fam), which sets out the background to this case. By my previous order I adjourned the matter for mediation to take place and ordered further disclosure to be given. Although formal mediation has not taken place, the parties have attended a joint "without prejudice" meeting - in the case of the wife unrepresented, in the case of the husband represented by the solicitors. That has not led to any kind of agreement. I do not propose to set out any more of the background. Anybody reading this judgment should read, first, my earlier judgment of 5^th March 2014, [2014] EWHC 537 (Fam).
2. The parties have given disclosure. The husband has not given complete disclosure. This is admitted by Mr. Warshaw, who represents him. The disclosure that he has given makes interesting reading. Although Mr. Warshaw produces a schedule which purportedly suggests he is hopelessly insolvent, the fact is that the husband's lifestyle, as demonstrated by where he lives free of charge and how he spends his money extensively, is inconsistent with a person who is de facto bankrupt, if not de jure bankrupt. His credit card statements from Allied Irish Bank show that via a company called Hexstar, which is owned by his girlfriend, he receives substantial sums in cash. The credit card with American Express, the Harrods American Express card, which is joint to him and his girlfriend, shows a lavish lifestyle.
3. The wife, to her credit, has been able to point out a number of inconsistencies in the way the husband has presented the case which is, as Mr. Warshaw put it in his note, "He has no resources from which he is able to pay the debt." She was able to point out to me, for example, that the medium through which his cash is transacted, namely the Hextar Visa Business Card, is not supported by bank statements of Hextar of which, although he may not have any shares, he is certainly a director. She was able to point out to me that in relation to loans that he receives from benefactors, including people of enormous wealth like Mr. Imerman, he makes representations that he will repay loans very shortly, while at the same time saying to this court and to his ex-wife that he has not got the means to make any payments to alleviate her position. In relation to an entity called United Capital Incorporation, a company incorporated in Panama, on which he has been granted a loan of £500,000, she was able to point out that, contrary to the schedule put in by Mr. Warshaw that stated that he was indebted to that company to the tune of £478,754, he was in fact indebted to that company to the tune of £231,972 against a facility of half a million pounds; and that while it says on the annual confirmation of the loan agreement that "as the value of the shares assigned has dropped, we cannot allow any further draw-downs for the time being" that is not to be taken seriously in circumstances where only a few weeks later on 20^th February, as his bank statements show, he received £10,000 ( less £6 bank charges) from United Capital.
4. It seems perfectly clear to me that Mr. Mann has the means to make payments that would prevent Mrs. Mann and the children, when they are with her, from suffering hardship and potentially being rendered homeless.
5. It is important that I remind myself that until October 2013 the husband was paying the wife's rent and £4,000 a month. It is true that in my previous judgment at paragraph 32 I stated that "... it was not implicit in the agreement that the husband would pay rent for an alternative property. I agree he has complied with its financial terms." The fact is, however, that he was, until October, paying for her rent (just over £6,000) a month at 4 St. Barnabas Mews, SW1.
6. The wife's position now is truly dire. Although the husband has continued to pay the £4,000 a month, the arrears of rent since October have mounted and now stand at £42,000.
7. The landlord has been told by the wife that there is this enforcement procedure today and on that basis he has stayed his hand. The wife, however, believes that if something concrete does not emerge from today, possession proceedings would inevitably follow. If possession proceedings do follow, in circumstances where neither child is under the age of 18, it is hard to imagine what the wife would do in order to accommodate herself. She would not be entitled to emergency housing under the Housing Act. What she would have to do, according to Mr. Warshaw, is take the £4,000 a month which the husband says he will continue paying and go off to some far-flung remote part of the metropolis and find very cheap rented accommodation, and then with the balance of the £4,000 pay for her daily bread.
8. I am satisfied today, having heard the case carefully, that this is a case where the numeric tabular presentation of the husband's circumstances does not accord with the reality; that he has ample resources through his spidery network of friends and offshore entities not only to meet his own needs in a very comfortable way, but to meet the needs of the wife in the way that he was doing until last October.
9. Now that the mediation agreement has come to an end, the order of Charles J. revives; that by its terms discharged the spousal maintenance order and replaced it by a lump sum, which the husband has not paid in full by any means. There was no formal dismissal of the wife's claim, which means that her periodical payments claim is capable of revival.
10. I have decided that the proper way of proceeding is for me to make an interim periodical payments order which I am fully able to do. Mr. Warshaw does not, as a matter of jurisdiction, argue otherwise. The order will be expressed to be without prejudice to the wife's rights under the order of Charles J. of 11^th May 2005. It is an emergency order designed to ensure that her property is not possessed and she is rendered homeless; that she can carry on living in the way that she was prior to last October. I therefore make an order that with effect from 1^st November the husband is to pay the wife interim periodical payments of £10,000 per month, payable monthly in advance with credit for £4,000 a month to be given between then and 1^st May. That gives rise to seven months of arrears, or £42,000 which is just about enough to pay the arrears. The arrears will be payable within seven days.
11. The periodical payments will then continue from 1^st June at the rate of £10,000 so that the wife can live as she was before, and the matter will be reviewed by me on a date to be fixed with the Clerk of the Rules when I am sitting in the vacation in the second half of September with a time estimate of one hour. I want to make it absolutely clear to the husband that this court has available to it a full range of enforcement measures. Having regard to the fact that the husband presents himself as a man with means but without assets, the likely means of enforcement if he does not comply with this order will be proceedings under the Debtors Act 1869 seeking his imprisonment.
_____________

Later:

[2014] EWHC 2032 (Fam)

Thursday 12^th June 2014