News
Estranged Charedi wife wins bitter £1.4m divorce battle
She rebelled against her strictly-Orthodox background
November 28, 2018 17:16
She rebelled against her strictly-Orthodox background
November 28, 2018 17:16A wife who rebelled against her strictly-Orthodox background has won a £1.4m court battle with her ex-husband over their family home.
Shlomo Kliers filed for divorce from estranged wife Miriam Kliers, 46, after she left him in 2012, leaving behind their Charedi lifestyle and forming a relationship with a new, non-Orthodox partner.
Relations between Mr Kliers, 46, who stayed in the couple’s home in Stamford Hill, north London, and his ex-wife have since been “hugely acrimonious”, London’s High Court heard.
Mr Kliers accused her of “adultery” in his divorce petition and condemned what he claimed was his wife’s “unreasonable behaviour” in turning against their strict religious lifestyle.
He has now formed a new relationship and moved his partner into the family home with him and the three children he had with Mrs Kliers.
Since fleeing the marriage, Mrs Kliers has spoken out about the restrictions placed on women in Orthodox communities and the difficulty she encountered in getting an education.
Now she is seeking a court order to turf her ex out of the £1.4m house so it can be sold — and she is set to receive four times more of the cash than him.
But Mr Kliers said a divorce judge would have awarded him at least half, if not all, of the house, and that it was grossly unfair for her to be left with so much of the family wealth.
Judge Patrick McCahill heard the former couple married in 1995, having both been brought up in Stamford Hill.
They bought their “large” £1.4m house in Kyverdale Road, Stamford Hill, in 2004 for £418,000, but it is now worth £1m more than that.
Mrs Kliers, who during her marriage turned away from her husband’s lifestyle, had struggled against the Orthodox establishment since she was a teenager over what she claimed was its opposition to her getting a normal education.
She eventually obtained a degree through the Open University and, in 2012, she brought the 17-year marriage to an end with a “factual separation”, by fleeing her husband and the community. However she said she was obliged to leave her children behind, who stayed with their father.
She went on to obtain a Jewish divorce in 2013, but Mr Kliers responded with a civil divorce petition to the Family Court in July this year.
That was after Mrs Kliers had succeeded in a High Court fight over ownership of the family home.
Judge Murray Rosen QC ruled in April that Mrs Kliers owns a three-quarter stake in the property, based on money her father contributed to the purchase.
Her ex was later debarred from defending her application for possession and sale of the property.
He also failed in a bid to get the case transferred to the Family Court, in the hope that a divorce judge would hand him a bigger stake in the house.
The judge who refused the transfer ruled the husband’s belated divorce petition was a “cynical ploy” designed to increase his share of the house.
Appealing against that decision, Nicholas Fairbank, for Mr Kliers, said he could only achieve a fair outcome if the case went before a family judge. “Mr Kliers may be forced into rented accommodation. The Family Court would be looking to avoid that ,” he said.
