Vivienne Crawshaw: Revenge can be expensive

Roget imported French cheeses for a speciality market, primarily in the restaurant trade. He lived dangerously, flirted outrageously, tending to cook and love with wild abandon.

Unfortunately his character did not lend itself to providing a stable environment for his wife Angela and their three young children.

Angela, who had tolerated one affair on the grounds that it was his obligation as a Frenchman to live up to his cultural norms, decided she was not really the type to live in an open relationship and threw him out of the family home in Parnell.

Unused to being homeless and without his home comforts, Roget's passion for life took a darker turn and he became vitriolic.

He tried to poison the children against Angela. "Your mother is a greedy, selfish human being," he said contemptuously.

"Yeah right, Dad," said his oldest as he surfed the internet and then held his hand out for cash.

Realising he was not making inroads into causing Angela any harm, Roget fumed about the injustice of his having to live in a dark, grimy flat in Grey Lynn while she continued in the lap of luxury in the home he had bought with the francs he had transferred from Lyon.

When Angela took up with a tall, quiet type, Roget's fury knew no bounds. He arrived in a drunken rage at the home, making a fool of himself, resulting in Angela briskly calling a taxi and removing him.

Roget's next step was to consult a lawyer. He engaged the feistiest one he could find, a woman whom he could see clearly took no prisoners.

"I want her out of the house, now," he commanded and she made an application for an order for sale of the property, among other moves.

Angela approached a more mild-mannered but equally astute lawyer, who pointed out that Roget's company shares must have a significant value, given that he had declared a rudely healthy income in the years before.

Cleverly, Angela had discovered Roget's tax returns from previous years and they disclosed incomes ranging over that time of between $170,000 and $200,000. Disturbingly, no formal accounts could be found, though she discovered some receipts and orders. Her lawyer applied for an occupation order for her and the children. Angela's new boyfriend was not at the stage of commitment. After attending a Men's Spirituality weekend he wanted to consider his options before entering a de facto relationship in a "blended family setting", as he described it.

So there was no sense that he would support Angela or be moving into the family home. The court had little difficulty in making an occupation order over the home for Angela's benefit for a specified period, given that she had the children in her primary care.

More troubling was the issue of the value of Roget's company shares. These were clearly relationship property as Roget had set up the company only after he had Angela well and truly seduced.

The difficult aspect was that Roget refused to provide company accounts and declared in his affidavit that the shares were worthless.

Not to be stumped, Angela's lawyer filed an affidavit from an accountant who examined the tax returns and the receipts and orders and placed a value on the shares based on this information at $400,000. Roget dismissed this as fanciful and refused to provide the information requested by Angela's lawyers about the shares' value, despite the court ordering him to do so.

As a last resort, Angela's lawyer sought a hearing and a decision in Angela's favour based on her expert's evidence on the value of the shares alone. But the court refused to penalise Roget to the tune of $200,000 for his obstinacy. Instead, it adjourned the proceedings for an inquiry to take place on the company share value. It appointed an independent accountant who was to make her own inquiries. She valued the shares at just over $300,000 based on the previous profits and likely future maintainable earnings.

Roget was to bear the costs of the independent accountant.

Revenge can be sweet, but is sometimes expensive.

* Vivienne Crawshaw is a family law specialist practising in Auckland.