A husband who is battling to have his divorce from his wife annulled more than two years after her death has been unsuccessful.
Desmond McIntosh is dyslexic and have severe difficulty in reading and writing, insists that he did not realise that his wife Jennifer had already divorced him as he cared for her during her final days.
Mr McIntosh, a carpenter, said that his literacy skills are so bad that he had no idea that he had signed divorce papers which left him with absolutely no capital following his wife’s death from lung and brain cancer in 2011, aged 71.
Mr McIntosh, 58, told London’s Appeal Court that he spent the last two years of his wife’s life caring for her and was shocked to find out after she died that she had ended their marriage in 2009.
He claimed that his signature on the divorce documents was unfairly procured by his late wife using ‘undue influence’.
The couple ran a carpentry business together and married in 1993. They bought a house in Thamesmead, London in which they lived for 16 years. The property was in the sole name of Mrs McIntosh and was bought for £78,000, it is now worth around £350,000.
The barrister acting for Mr McIntosh argued that the couple had an oral agreement that they would own the property in equal shares.
He asked Lord Justice Ryder for permission to appeal the decree absolute and open the way for Mr McIntosh to claim half the equity in the house.
The barrister emphasised that Mr McIntosh had severe difficulty in reading and writing which his wife was aware of. She would write and read documents to him, and he placed absolute trust in his wife regarding these matters.
Mr McIntosh did not understand the documents that his wife was asking him to sign in relation to their divorce, the barrister added.
A consent order provided that neither party had a legal or equitable interest in the property owned by the other.