Bid to deprive ex-wife of cash fails

A Hawke’s Bay orchardist’s bid to deprive his former wife of what she was owed by putting money in a family trust appears to have come unstuck.

Richard Hodgkinson and Michelle Judd were married for 61⁄2-years and lived in a property in Havelock North, owned by the Richard Hodgkinson Trust. After they separated in mid-2012, Judd claimed that the trust held a share in the property that should be hers in order to reflect her contributions to it.

In June last year, after a threeyear legal wrangle, Judd obtained a judgment against Hodgkinson in the Family Court for a sum of $78,553.76. The Family Court judgment was made on June 24, 2014. On June 25 and 26, 2014, Hodgkinson made gifts totalling $973,753 to the trust account.

After he failed to pay a cent of it Judd applied to bankrupt Hodgkinson, who opposed the application.

The matter went to the High Court this month.

Hodgkinson’s lawyer Magnus Macfarlane told Associate Judge Warwick Smith he did not deny that he owed the debt to Judd but said he shouldn’t be bankrupted.

Macfarlane told the judge Judd had rejected an offer of $25,000 or an offer of paying her weekly instalments of $50.

He said it was ‘‘pointless’’ to make his client bankrupt and this would just be ‘‘a waste of public money’’.

Hodgkinson, 68, inherited a family orchard in 1993 and operates Hodgies Fresh Fruit Company. He said he had very little in the way of assets, had personal possessions ‘‘of no particular value’’ and while Hodgies owed him some $500,000, the company also had few assets and these debts were unlikely to be paid.

Judd’s lawyer, Jol Bates, told the judge that the money should have remained available to Hodgkinson so he could meet any obligations the Family Court found he owed her.

Judge Smith said Judd was not being unreasonable and making Hodgkinson bankrupt would not be pointless. The trust had assets of more than $1.5m and ‘‘any judgment obtained against it could be enforced,’’ he said.

The judge noted there was public interest in ensuring Hodgkinson was not able to get away with deliberately organising his affairs ‘‘in such a way as to deprive Ms Judd of the fruits of any judgment she might obtain against him’’.

Hodgkinson was made bankrupt at 3pm on March 21, 2018.

Yesterday, Bates said Hodgkinson’s actions had led to ‘‘great difficulties for my client as his exwife’’.

‘‘The judgments speaks for itself, and there are lessons to be learned. Those who actively seek to avoid their legal and moral obligations aren’t going to get very far,’’ Bates said.

Hodgkinson was contacted for comment.