swarb.co.uk - law index
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Child Support - From: 2003 To: 2003
This page lists 13 cases, and was prepared on 20 May 2019.
ÂDarke v Strout [2003] EWCA Civ 176
28 Jan 2003
CA
Family, Contract, Child Support
Abstention in exercising of a statutory right to apply for child maintenance may afford sufficient consideration to support a compromise of a contractual claim.
1 Citers
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(Un-named) (Chiild Support) [2003] UKSSCSC CCS - 4760 - 2002
24 Feb 2003
SSCS
Child Support
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K, Regina (on the application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2003] EWHC 1021 (Admin)
16 May 2003
Admn
Wall J
Child Support, Human Rights
Child Support Act 1991
1 Cites
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Regina (Kehoe) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Times, 21 May 2003; Gazette, 03 July 2003; [2003] 2 FLR 578
16 May 2003
QBD
Wall J
Child Support, Human Rights, Administrative
The applicant had been obliged under statute to have her claim for maintenance for her child pursued thorugh the Child Support Agency. She said that through the delay and otherwise, her claim had been lost. Held: The statute debarred the claimant pursuing her own remedies, and her human rights were therefore engaged. The inability to take a case to court would be an infringement, but she had two remedies. She could seek a judicial review of decisions of the Child Support Agency's actions, and she had a right under section 7 of the 1998 Act for damages. Those powers cured the defect in the 1991 Act.
Child Support Act 1991 8(3) - Human Rights Act 1998 7
1 Cites
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In re P (Child: Financial Provision) Times, 24 July 2003; Gazette, 04 September 2003; [2003] 2 FLR 865
24 Jun 2003
CA
Thorpe, May LJJ, Bodey J
Child Support, Family
The court considered the amount of an allowance to be provided to a parent which would, on divorce, take care of a child of the family in a moderate to high income case. Held: The carer would not themselves be entitled to an allowance personally, but only in his or her capacity as carer. The exercise was one of discretion, involving a broad commonsense approach. It can be easier to decide first what was to happen to any capital sum with a view to providing a home. A balance had then to be found between competing principles. The carer was not herself entitled to an allowance but would inevitably make sacrifices. The carer should be allowed a budget which reflected her position and that of the father, both social and financial.
1 Citers
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P (Child), Re (Child: Financial Provision) [2003] EWCA Civ 837; [2003] 2 FLR 865
24 Jun 2003
CA
Thorpe LJ, May LJ, Bodey J
Child Support
The father was a very wealthy Iranian, and the mother also had capital. She sought an assessment under the 1991 Act of the amount he should be asked to pay. The assessment came to £152 per week, but he was paying £1,200 a month voluntarily. An order under the 1989 Act could not be made without there first being in place an agreement between the parents. The judge had made an order on the mother's application for capital provision and for child maintenance which was to reduce on the child's seventh birthday on the basis that a nanny would no longer be required.
Child Support Act 1991 - Children Act 1989 1
1 Citers
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Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v Jones Times, 13 August 2003; Gazette, 18 September 2003
2 Jul 2003
FD
Elizabeth Butler-Sloss President
Children, Child Support
The appellant Secretary of State challenged a decision of magistrates as to whether the respondent was the father of a child for whom Child Support was sought. The mother had been married, but had been living with the respondent at the appropriate time. The respondent had refused to provide a DNA sample for testing. The magistrates applied the presumption that a child born in wedlock was the child of the husband. Held: The magistrates had erred in law. The presumption which followed a refusal to provide a sample was virtually inescapable, and should be given greater weight than the presumption of legitimacy. The result, if the magistrates had been correct, was that a child could never obtain a declaration of paternity, which would impact upon the child's right to family life.
Family Law Act 1986
1 Cites
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Pearce v Pearce [2003] EWCA Civ 1054; Times, 01 September 2003; [2003] 3 FLR 1144; [2004] 1 WLR 68
28 Jul 2003
CA
The President, Lord Justice Thorpe, And Lord Justice Mantell
Family, Child Support
The financial claims on divorce had been settled by a compromise recorded in a court order. The order included periodical payments to the former wife. After she suffered financial losses, she sought an increase, and the former husband sought an order finalising the arrangements. Held: The judge should have restricted himself to capitalisation of the increased periodical payments order and abstained from the addition of a substantial uplift. He should not have allowed the wife to discharge her mortgage at the husband's expense, which violates the principle that capital claims once compromised could not be revisited. There is simply no power or discretion to embark on further adjustment of capital to reflect the outcome of unwise or unfortunate investment on one side or prudent or lucky investment on the other.
Thorpe LJ said: "Both as a matter of principle and as a matter of good practice, in my opinion the judge had to decide three questions in the following sequence. First he had to decide what variation to make in the order for periodical payments agreed in 1997. An increase was inevitable given inflation and the husband's overall increased prosperity despite the decline in his income. The judge's second task was to fix the date from which the increased order was to commence. That would dispose of the past and present account between the parties. Then, and only then, should he have moved to the future, substituting a capital payment calculated in accordance with the Duxbury tables for the income stream that he was terminating.
Of course I do not seek to put the trial judge in a straitjacket. He exercises a broad discretion at the first stage. Equally at the third stage he exercises a discretion, albeit a narrower one, in departing from the mathematics of the Duxbury tables to reflect special factors which individual cases will regularly generate."
Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 31(7B)
1 Cites
1 Citers
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Smith v Reliance Water Controls Ltd [2003] EWCA Civ 1153
30 Jul 2003
CA
Child Support, Employment
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(Un-named) [2003] UKSSCSC CCS - 1153 - 2003
1 Oct 2003
SSCS
Discrimination, Child Support
The mother had challenged payments required of her by way of child support. The Secretary of State now appealed. Held: The appeal was rejected: "a gay relationship can be a family for the purpose of [A]rticle 8". There was no reason, in the context of child support legislation, to distinguish between families according to the sexual orientation of the partners. The purpose of the regulations was to determine the financial obligation of the absent parent, a matter on which his or her sexual orientation should have no bearing. Accordingly, the applicant's situation was within the ambit of the right to respect for family life. The court rejected, however, the applicant's argument that the situation also came within the ambit of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1. As to Article 14, the Commissioner found that, in the context of child support payments, the applicant's situation was analogous to that of an absent parent living with a heterosexual partner, who, all other things being equal, would have been required to pay around GBP 14 per week instead of almost GBP 47. The Government had not advanced any justification for treating the applicant differently and therefore the child support scheme violated the applicant's Convention right under Article 14 read in conjunction with Article 8. Concerning the remedy, the Commissioner disagreed with the approach of the Appeals Tribunal. Instead, since the regulations defined the various terms used by the regulations "unless the context otherwise requires", he considered that, with the entry into force of the Human Rights Act on 2 October 2000, the "context" now included the absent parent's Convention rights. Therefore, the definition of an unmarried couple ("a man and a woman who are not married to each other but are living together as husband and wife") did not apply in this situation.
European Convention on Human Rights - Child Support (Maintenance Assessments and Special Cases) Regulations 1992 1(2)
1 Citers
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(Un-named) (CS) [2003] UKSSCSC CCS - 2858 - 2002
6 Oct 2003
SSCS
Child Support
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W v J [2003] EWHC 2657 (Fam)
24 Oct 2003
FD
Bennett J
Child Support
The mother sought an increase in the order for child maintenance made in order to pay her legal fees.
Children Act 1989
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Pullar Or Higgins (Known As Pullar) v Higgins (Formerly Known as Higgins) [2003] ScotCS 344
30 Dec 2003
OHCS
MG Thomson QC
Child Support
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