A piece in today’s Times:
A divorcing wife whose estranged husband was killed by a speeding car wants £700,000 in compensation after saying that he “clearly loved her” and they would have got back together.
Cathryn Craven, 50, a travel agent, left her husband, Jayson Craven, and took their younger children with her after she learnt that he was having an affair. Before the divorce was finalised he was “killed instantly” when hit by a speeding car as he crossed a dual carriageway in Coventry.
Terry Davies, the driver, from Coventry, was jailed for four years in 2015 for dangerous driving. Mrs Craven, who has three children, is bringing the claim for £700,000 against Davies, claiming that she was her husband’s dependant and “loved him deeply”. She said that they would probably have resumed their marriage had he not been killed. However, lawyers for the driver’s insurers deny that there was a “substantial chance” of this happening.
The High Court in London was told that Mr Craven, 48, was hit by Davies’s Audi Quatro at 86mph on a stretch of road with a 40mph limit in June 2014 after a night out.
Mrs Craven’s barrister, Marcus Grant, told Judge Jeremy Freedman that after tensions “drove a wedge” between the couple, Mr Craven began an affair in 2014. This led to Mrs Craven suing for divorce and leaving the family home with her younger children.
A decree nisi was issued seven weeks after Mr Craven was killed. Although the application had been lodged while Mr Craven was alive, Mr Grant said that the couple would have saved their marriage because of Mrs Craven’s financial dependence on her husband, which would have meant that her “desire to be divorced from him would have been lessened to the point of extinction”. [J4MB emphasis. Women are strong! Women are amazing!! Women can choose to be financially dependent on their husbands!!!]
Mr Craven was “saying before his death about his own desire to save the marriage”, Mr Grant said. Mrs Craven echoed this in the witness box, telling Judge Freedman that he was “trying to reconcile the marriage”.
“He clearly loved me,” she said. “We had been through a lot of emotions. There had been sadness. He had been angry. He had been quiet and very loving. He sent me flowers at Christmas.”
Lawyers for Mr Davies are denying that the couple would have got back together or that Mrs Craven should be compensated as her husband’s dependant.
They point out that Mr Craven had cancelled the direct debit mortgage payments on the couple’s £475,000 five-bedroom detached home in Coventry shortly before he was killed.
The hearing continues.
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