A judge ruled this week that a woman cannot renegotiate her divorce settlement with her ex-husband, despite the fact that his shares have increased in value by as much as four times.

Kim Walkden took her ex-husband Martin to court in a bid to gain some of the money that he received when his company was bought out. The couple were married in 1986, and then divorced twenty years later in 2006. Then just two years later Martin’s company ‘Triesse’ was taken over and he received £3.8 million in the deal.

Originally Kim Walkden received £482,000 from the divorce, which was based on the company’s value of £800,000. As a result of the takeover, Kim took her ex-husband back to court in York.

The divorce lawyer for Martin Walkden, Nicholas Francis QC, made the point that his case was the exact opposite of one rejected by the courts two months ago when Brian Myerson attempted to have divorce settlement reduced because he suffering in the recession.

Lord Justice Thorpe ruled that Kim Walkden could not renegotiate her settlement as the couple had a ‘clean break’ originally.

Lord Justice Wall added that Martin Walkden’s divorce lawyer was correct in his analogy to the previous case, saying that he was:

Entitled to describe this case as the flipside of the decision of this court in Myerson v Myerson.