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Challenge over £5.5m divorce could change law on prenups
Robert Mendick27 Apr 2009
A German heiress took her ex-husband to the Court of Appeal today in a bid to enforce a prenuptial contract that would leave him with almost nothing of her £100 million fortune.
Katrin Radmacher was previously ordered to pay her ex-husband, a former investment banker turned Oxford University student, more than £5.5 million.
The couple, who were married in a civil ceremony at Claridge's Hotel in November 1998 after meeting at Tramp nightclub, have two children, Chiara, eight, and six-year-old Chloe.
In August that year they signed a pre-nuptial agreement in Germany in front of an independent notary. The contract stipulated that German law should apply to their marriage and to the division of property should they split, while each waived the right to maintenance in the event of a divorce.
Ms Radmacher, 39, was in the front of the court today as her lawyer argued that Nicolas Granatino, 38, who is French, should not receive the lump sum awarded last year by the High Court. She claims her fortune is in fact just over £50 million and that Mr Granatino is heir to a family fortune of up to £20 million.
She insisted her husband had planned to become an investment fund manager, specialising in biotechnology companies, on completion of his PhD, and had only recently decided to remain an academic.
He had once boasted he would become a billionaire one day, but now planned to work for a cancer charity, Ms Radmacher claims in court submissions. She has accused him of deliberately delaying his doctorate to “maximise his claim”.
English divorce law does not recognise prenuptial contracts as legally binding. Richard Todd QC, acting for Ms Radmacher, told the court: “Frau Radmacher understandably struggles to understand why the parties' agreement appears not to be enforceable in England.”
Ms Radmacher was running a boutique in Knightsbridge with her sister while Mr Granatino was working for JP Morgan, earning as much as £324,000 a year, when they met. He gave up his job in 2003 to pursue a doctorate in biotechnology at Oxford and now earns as little as £30,000 a year. The couple separated in 2006 and were divorced shortly after.
Mr Granatino now lives in a flat off Sloane Square while Ms Radmacher has subsequently moved to Monaco.
Out of the money awarded to Mr Granatino, he was given £2.5 million to buy a home in London, £25,000 for a car, £700,000 to pay off debts and £2.3 million in maintenance paid in a lump sum.
He had asked for £9.2 million while Ms Radmacher offered £1 million for a house, nothing to pay off his debts and £35,000 a year in maintenance until his retirement, as well as £36,000 a year in maintenance for the children while Mr Granatino was looking after them.
The case will be watched with interest by divorce lawyers because it could set a precedent for the enforceability of prenuptial contracts.
Ms Radmacher's father, who runs German paper-making group Hoffsummer, gave his daughter large sums following her marriage on the assumption that Mr Granatino would not be able to claim a share. The hearing continues.
