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A recent Court of Appeal decision has upheld the principle that liabilities build up during a marriage can be ordered to be shared in a divorce, just as assets are.

In the case the wife, Elena Marano, a wealthy heiress in her own right, was ordered to pay £5 million towards her husband's property losses that he incurred in the depths of the credit crunch. On appeal she argued that she should not have to do this because she was, in effect, being asked to use her own inherited money to "bail out" her husband, when in time his property values would increase considerably. The court disagreed and said the award must stand as the husband was still at huge risk of the losses crystallising if the property had to be sold.

Whilst in property law the debt is legally the responsibility of the person in whose name it is, the matrimonial courts have always had wide ranging powers to order that both parties to a marriage should contribute to a debt, even if it was incurred by one of them. This will be decided in each case depending on the circumstances, but in general, as far as a debt incurred in the marriage is concerned, unless there is evidence that it has been incurred through total

irresponsibility such as gambling, the court will regard the debt as a joint one even if the debt is in one of the spouses names only. Whilst some may consider property investments to be a form of gambling the Court of Appeal doesn't share this view and the courts seek to apply the same principles of sharing to matrimonial debts as they do to matrimonial assets - the couple are in it together - for better or for worse.

Liz Allen has over 20 years' experience in all areas of family law, specialising in financial and business divorce settlements including complex pension arrangements and is regularly identified as a leader in her area of law throughout the region by independent guides to the legal profession. She is the only south-west family lawyer to be named in the Honours list for the 2010 Citywealth Guide and the only family lawyer in Devon and Cornwall appearing in the 'Leading Individuals list' in the 2009 edition of Legal 500.