Billionaire's ex-wife appeals $995M award in divorce case
After 25 years of marriage, a divorce award of nearly $1 billion isn’t enough, says the ex-wife of an Oklahoma oil baron with an estimated net worth of $10.7 billion to $18 billion.
So Sue Ann Arnall, a lawyer and economist, has filed an appeal of last month’s ruling in the Oklahoma County case, according to Reuters and the Tulsa World.
She is seeking to have the decision reviewed by the state supreme court; however, it may have to go to the state court of appeals first.
The judgment against her ex-husband, Harold Hamm, is one of the largest ever in a divorce case.
But divorce lawyers observing the case, including New York’s Seymour Reisman, said it would not have been surprising to see a much higher award amounting to at least 25 to 30 percent of the couple’s assets, Fuel Fix reports.
Although Hamm founded his oil company, Continental Resources, some 20 years before the couple married in 1988, most of its growth has occurred since then, Reuters says. Arnall was a lawyer at the company at the time of the marriage and has since served in a number of executive positions. Hamm is Continental’s chief executive and chairman of its board.
“As Sue Ann has stated previously, 6 percent is not a fair proportion of the wealth the couple accumulated during their marriage, and she trusts that a more equitable division of the marital estate will result from this appeal,” said her attorney, Ron Barber, in a written statement emailed to the Oklahoman.
A lawyer for Hamm called the award “fair and equitable,” the newspaper reports.
An earlier Reuters article provides more details about the couple.
Related coverage:
Reuters: “The $1 billion divorce: Why Harold Hamm’s ex-wife didn’t win more”
