AppSense founder’s divorce battle heads to Supreme Court

THE bitter row over a divorce settlement between entrepreneur Charles Sharland and his ex-wife is heading to the Supreme Court.

The case centres on information regarding the valuation of Mr Sharland’s stake in software firm AppSense that was given to the family court in an earlier hearing.

His ex-wife, Alison Sharland, who is being represented by law firm Irwin Mitchell, has been granted permission to take the case to the Supreme Court in June 2015 after it was found that her husband misled both her and the High Court over the value of the Daresbury-based business.

The Supreme Court has confirmed that the case raises a point of law of general public importance and will hear her appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal which refused to set aside the divorce agreement, despite his misrepresentation.
 
Ros Bever, a family and divorce law partner at Irwin Mitchell’s Manchester office representing Mrs Sharland, said: “We are very pleased that the Supreme Court has agreed that this is a case which requires consideration at the highest level.

“There are numerous legal arguments to be had before the Supreme Court but we hope that ultimately justice will be done and will be seen to be done.”

Mr Sharland founded software developer AppSense, which has a substantial presence in the US and counts Goldman Sachs as an investor, and remains its chairman.

Mr Sharland’s solicitors, James Brown and Beth Wilkins at Manchester law firm JMW said: “With the Supreme Court due to consider the details of Mr and Mrs Sharland’s divorce, we feel that it would be inappropriate to prejudice those deliberations by taking relevant arguments to the media before they are presented to the Court.

“The fact remains that the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s judgement that the agreement struck between Mr and Mrs Sharland was fair and had not caused her any loss.”

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