Miller v Miller
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Miller v Miller [2006] (House of Lords) is a divorce (property settlement) case between Alan Miller and Melissa Miller. He is an asset manager in the City who had a fortune of some £30m (per The Times - which says 17.5m in property plus 18.5 in shares). Melissa was entitled to £5 million of her former husband's assets after just two years and nine months of marriage, no children, the Law Lords ruled. Five Law Lords agreed that the benchmark for division should be equal shares - save in certain circumstances - no matter how short the marriage. They said that to achieve fairness at the end of a marriage, the courts should look to three main considerations - financial needs, compensation and equal sharing.
In Mcfarlane v Mcfarlane [2006] (conjoined appeal) the wife was awarded 250,000 p.a. for 5 years and potentially for life. There were children in that case.