Date of Case: 11 April 2019
Case Reference: [2019] EWFC 24, [2019] 2 FLR 527

The husband and wife began cohabiting in 1983 and then married in Germany in September 1985. Shortly before they married, they signed a marriage contract under German law. The contract, at the wife’s insistence, left her with nothing in the event of divorce, even in the event of hardship. The couple had lived in Switzerland for much of the marriage, but at the time of her divorce petition the wife was living in England. The husband applied successfully for the dismissal of the wife’s divorce petition for lack of jurisdiction, the judge accepting that she was not domiciled in England and had not been habitually resident in England for a sufficient period to found jurisdiction. The case was remitted to Germany to proceed on the husband’s petition.

Bailii report: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/HCJ/2019/24.html

Case summary on Class Legal: https://classlegal.com/news/case-summary-pierburg-v-pierburg-2019-ewfc-24

Judgment in Family Law Week: https://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed200671