A SCOTTISH aristocrat has lost a Supreme Court battle to have his £5 million divorce battle heard in a Scottish court and not an English one.
Charles Villiers, 57, said he and his estranged wife should fight over money in a Scottish court instead of an English one has lost a Supreme Court battle.
Mr Villiers who is related to the Duchess of Cornwall, had filed for divorce from his wife Emma in Scotland in 2014.
The couple lived in an 18th century Georgian mansion in Milton, near Dumbarton, during their 18-year marriage.
Supreme Court justices ruled against Mr Villiers on Wednesday after analysing the dispute at a Supreme Court hearing in London.
READ MORE: Cash fight pits Scotland's legal system against England’s
Mr Villiers had appealed to the Supreme Court after losing fights in the High Court and Court of Appeal in London.
Lawyers say the ruling could have implications for other divorcing couples.
Michael Horton, representing Mr Villiers, suggested in an earlier court hearing that it would spark “chaos” if English judges were to decide upon Scottish divorce cases.
The lawyer also called for individual disputes to be dealt with by the courts of one country. Legal experts, meanwhile, argue that the justices are being asked to grapple with issues relating to “forum shopping” and “divorce tourism”.
Mr Villiers asked Supreme Court justices to consider the case after judges at the High Court and Court of Appeal in London had ruled against him.
A judge based in the Family Division of the High Court in London had initially examined it. Mrs Justice Parker, who began analysing both sides of the argument in 2015, said any fight over the division of assets should take place in England.
Moreover, in 2018, three Court of Appeal judges in London upheld this decision and dismissed an appeal by Mr Villiers.
They also held that divorce proceedings in Scotland and a money fight in England were not “related actions”.
Mr Villiers then asked Supreme Court justices to consider the case and yesterday, it began hearing arguments from both sides.
They are expected to publish a ruling next year. Courts have previously been told that the couple had spent almost all of their married life in Scotland and, after 17 years together, they separated in 2012.
Mr Villiers had stayed in the family home, Milton House, in Dumbarton, after the separation. Mrs Villiers “came south to England” and lived near Oxford then in London, where she made a claim in the High Court.
Delivering the judgement, Lord Sales said: "The divorce proceedings in Scotland do not qualify as proceedings which are related to the wife's maintenance claim in England.
"Therefore there is no basis on which the English courts could refuse to hear Mrs Villiers' claim. Mrs Villiers was entitled to bring her claim for maintenance in England.
"The wife's claim is not predicated on the result of the proceedings in Scotland, so there is no requirement that the two proceedings be heard and determined together to avoid the risk of irreconcilable judgments.
"An award of maintenance to the wife is in no way incapable of being reconciled with an order for divorce issued by the Scottish court."
Mr Villiers claimed because divorce proceedings are taking place in Scotland, any decision over money should also be staged north of the Border, where there is a three-year cap on maintenance payments.
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