The High Court has rejected an application by a woman seeking further pension provision following a Kerry divorce after finding that an €80,000 payment she said had been concealed was in fact disclosed during the original hearing.
Ms Justice Nuala Jackson delivered judgment on 17 December 2025 in an anonymised family-law case involving D.D. and B.B. The divorce appeal had already been fully determined by orders made on 28 May 2025.
The wife later returned to court alleging that the husband had failed to disclose the surrender of a Standard Life Synergy Buy Out Bond during the divorce proceedings. She argued that an €80,000 tax-free lump sum had been available and sought €40,000, or another amount considered appropriate, together with additional pension orders and disclosure.
The husband denied any concealment. He said his pension history had been extensively discussed during the hearing and pointed to the divorce order itself, which recorded that he had received funds from Standard Life.
Ms Justice Jackson reviewed the digital audio recording of the March 2025 hearing. She found that the lump-sum payment had been disclosed and discussed. The court had already taken it into account when structuring the pension arrangements: the wife had received 50% of an Irish Life pension, the husband retained the balance, and the wife retained the entire Acorn Life pension in recognition of the payment he had received.
Because there had been no non-disclosure, the court refused the relief sought in the new motion.
The judge added that there was a separate jurisdictional difficulty. The High Court had heard the case as an appeal from the Circuit Family Court and its final May 2025 orders disposed of that appeal. Once those final orders were made, its jurisdiction was spent except in limited circumstances not present here.
Any genuinely new issue or later application should therefore be brought before the Circuit Family Court, with a right of appeal from that court if necessary.