Wife's pension claim challenged

A husband won permission yesterday to challenge in the House of Lords a landmark court decision giving his divorced wife a legal right to a share in his pension as a 'post-nuptial settlement'.

In a 2-1 majority ruling in May, the Court of Appeal had held that the wife was entitled to a share of the self-administered pension. The scheme was set up after the marriage of Douglas Brooks, 64, and his wife, Anne, 56, of Sunningdale, Berkshire. The couple separated in 1989 after 12 years.