“His judgment must in my view stand or fall on the findings in the judgment proper. That which is set out in the annex cannot properly be regarded as 'findings' informing this or any other court, being merely 'context' against which to consider the judgment itself.”
“In my judgment the wife's appeal against the Judge's finding that the sole and continuing purpose of the trust was, and is, for the benefit of the Chinese Tiger Project must fail. It follows from that conclusion that: i) In the light of the Judge's findings which have not, as a consequence of this appeal, been successfully challenged or undermined, CTSAT has never constituted and does not constitute a disposition which makes any form of continuing provision for either of the parties and the Judge was therefore right in concluding that CTSAT is not a post nuptial settlement; ii) Given the Judge's findings the Judge made no error of law when concluding that CTSAT's assets are not a Thomas v Thomas resource of the husband's; they are, as the Judge found, available for the Chinese Tiger Project and only for the Chinese Tiger Project.”
“At times, it seemed that Mr Howard was submitting that what the law required was something close to a certainty that the trustees would come up with funds so that unless a judge finds that the trustees will provide, the trust is irrelevant. However, I think he did concede in argument that this was putting it too high. Such an approach would not be consistent withs 25(2)(a) Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 which refers to the property and other financial resources which each of the parties to the marriage "is likely to have in the foreseeable future" and it is not in line with the authorities which contemplate a finding (which will obviously be made on the balance of probability) that the trustees are likely to comply with what is requested of them. That can be seen, for example, in what Wilson LJ said in Charman v Charman[2005] EWCA Civ 1606 at §12 and §13 which culminated in the following: ‘In principle, however, in the light ofs. 25(2)(a) of the 1973 Act , the question is surely whether the trustee would be likely to advance the capital immediately or in the foreseeable future.’”
“It is a matter ultimately of choice for H, but clearly he has the faculty to make substantial earnings. He spoke of earning£120,000 a year at the point, until the beginning of 2010, when he embarked upon his sabbatical. TB clearly values him highly as a potential employee of Anthology. The Car Portfolio appears to have fared prodigiously well under his tutelage. The commercial worth to that business of his knowledge, his contacts, his experience and his enthusiasm must in my judgment be at least£200,000 a year at this stage, plus the prospect of whatever bonus arrangement is arrived at. I take his earning capacity at that figure as its minimum. [In the light of the application made by Mr Pointer at the June hearing for permission to appeal against the order for periodical payments, referred to below, it occurs to me that this last sentence lacks precision. H's earning capacity in Anthology's employ, the faculty upon which I have based that order, includes what I anticipate will be substantial bonuses: as to which, historically, see [99] above.]”
“Above all, however, it has sought to generate profits from a levered endowment of sustainable development investments including sustainable forest, clean energy, etc with partners like Weyerhaeuser, Beijing Capital Group, Shell, Econcern, Eneco, Veolia and many others with financing from financial institutions like Credit Suisse, Citibank, Barclays, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, ABN AMRO, Rabo Bank, Standard Chartered, Standard Bank, ABSA, among others.”
“I am a partner in JAS Financial Products LLP, the operational, financial and marketing advisor to CTSAT”
“I am now going to make a final order that the respondents comply with my order by 4 PM on 23 January, and a penal notice will be attached to that order.”
“Now, it is true to say that that order for disclosure was ancillary to, or parasitical upon, the freezing order which fell away 21 days after the dismissal of the wife’s appeal by the Court of Appeal. But while it was extant Mr Bray had an obligation to comply with it and he did not. When somebody fails to comply with a court order for disclosure of documents the court can reach into its armoury and take enforcement proceedings, including proceedings for committal to prison, or it can approach the matter in a more nuanced way, which is to say that it will, at the appropriate time, draw the necessary inferences from the failure to give disclosure. One has to ask oneself, ‘what did Mr Bray fear that the documents that he refused to disclose show?’ I do not have any hesitation in drawing a conclusion that there was probably a financial skeleton in his cupboard, that he was wary of disclosing.”
“Please note that we are seeking guidance from our legal representatives and shall revert in due course”
“I felt, one day, we had won the appeal and from that point I did not feel the need to provide the documents”
“I might be able to earn some money as a drug dealer. Before I changed my major to mathematics in my final year of college, I was a chemistry major. My senior organic chemistry project was the synthesis of cocaine, a synthesis that was, at that time, on the frontiers of organic chemistry due to problems related to controlling the chirality of the cocaine molecule. As I recall, only 1 of the 16 possible stereoisomers is psychoactive. The cocaine plant naturally produces only this stereoisomer but in the lab this is quite difficult. This is why cocaine is extracted from the plant for commercial use rather than synthesised as methamphetamine is. (Walter White’s particular expertise in Breaking Bad was controlling which enantiomer he produced but he only had to worry about 2 possibilities and both left and right-handed meth are psychoactive – dextromethamphetamine being the stronger drug.)”
“A further possibility is that I might be able to pursue a career as a legal executive at Vardags [the wife’s solicitors]. I gather from Stephen Levitt’s economic research on crime, that I might well earn more extorting money for Vardags then I would earn in drug dealing (apparently, most drug dealers live with their mother because they cannot afford a place of their own). Despite the financial disadvantage, I think I would prefer drug dealing because it is considerably more ethical.”
“In a similar vein, my skeleton argument for this hearing complained that Mr Todd QC had been found to “island hop” through the evidence. I took you to the paragraphs in the final judgment where Lady Justice King made this finding and multiple examples throughout her judgment illustrating this complaint. Whether or not it made it into the final judgment, Mr Todd QC did have an absolute duty not to mislead the court. That includes the duty not to mislead by omitting evidence that is unhelpful to his case. The unavoidable conclusion is the Mr Todd QC did lose sight of his absolute duty. Mr Harrison complained of this behaviour as well. I stand by my assessment that this kind of behaviour which has been repeated endlessly has been the primary reason these proceedings have taken so long and cost so much. Accordingly, I will be asking to join Mr Todd QC, Lily Mottehedan, Mr Noel and Vardags to these proceedings for costs.”
“It is misleading to say that [the wife] and [the husband] never pay any rent. [They] pay rent in kind for their work for the tiger project.”
“Mr Todd specifically challenges the Judge's adequacy of reasoning and failure to deal with certain specific topics. Longmore LJ was faced with similar submissions in Aerospace Publishing Ltd v Thames Water Utilities Ltd [2007] Bus LR 726;[2007] EWCA Civ 3 . At [70] he stated: ‘In a complex factual case such as the present it will often be comparatively easy for an appellant to allege that a judgment is imperfectly or inadequately reasoned on one aspect or another and even to persuade this court, on an unopposed permission application, that that is arguably so. Appellants must, however be aware that there is no obligation on a Judge to give a particular response to every submission made (judgments in this country are quite long enough already) and that, unless it becomes apparent in the course of the appeal that a serious injustice has been done, appeals on the ground of inadequacy of reasons in complex factual disputes are likely to fail.’” ‘In a complex factual case such as the present it will often be comparatively easy for an appellant to allege that a judgment is imperfectly or inadequately reasoned on one aspect or another and even to persuade this court, on an unopposed permission application, that that is arguably so. Appellants must, however be aware that there is no obligation on a Judge to give a particular response to every submission made (judgments in this country are quite long enough already) and that, unless it becomes apparent in the course of the appeal that a serious injustice has been done, appeals on the ground of inadequacy of reasons in complex factual disputes are likely to fail.’”