The High Court has ordered that a woman receive the South Dublin home she shared with her deceased partner, finding she was entitled to provision from his estate as a qualified cohabitant.
In a judgment delivered on 25 February 2020, Mr Justice Allen said the woman and the man had lived together in the house from 1998 until his death in 2013. He found their relationship had been intimate and committed from 1998. The man died intestate, unmarried and without children.
The application was made under section 194 of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010. The judge heard it on affidavit evidence after the lawyers agreed there was no basis to contest the woman’s account. The man’s siblings had been notified. One brother, E.D., filed an affidavit and attended the hearing; the other siblings did not retain solicitors.
The woman’s case was that the relationship began in 1981 and that they had lived together for 32 years. E.D. disputed that she qualified, arguing that his brother worked abroad for much of the period and lacked capacity after March 2007. The judge accepted that the pair had lived together in the United Kingdom from 1982 to 1987 and in South Dublin from July 1998 until the man’s death. He was not satisfied they had lived together between 1987 and 1998, and said the claimed 40-year relationship duration did not work arithmetically. He held that earlier periods could not be added to the qualifying period immediately before the relationship ended.
The estate included the South Dublin house, valued at €490,000, and bank deposits totalling just over €82,000. The judge found the woman had given up her job in 2007 to care for the man and had become financially dependent on him. He also found that she had contributed to their household and that caring for him had impaired her future earning capacity. There was no evidence of the siblings’ financial circumstances or particular needs, though the court was required to consider their intestacy rights.
The judge concluded that the woman needed financial security and that awarding her the house was proper provision. He said it had been intended as a home for the couple and had been theirs for the 15 years before the man’s death. He also ordered the woman’s and administrator’s costs to be paid from the estate, limited to Circuit Court costs. If costs of the earlier application to appoint an administrator had been reserved to the trial judge, those were also payable from the estate. E.D. was awarded his expenses of attending court.