The High Court granted a decree of judicial separation to E. S. and D. S., relying on the husband’s adultery as the ground for the decree. Mr Justice Abbott said he could not base it on the absence of a normal marital relationship during the year before proceedings began because the husband’s withdrawal from the marriage had not been communicated to his wife except through the affair, which began within that year. The judge said the adultery should carry no penalising consequences for the husband.
The parties have two dependent children. The court ordered D. S. to pay €400 a month for each child and €50,000 a year to his wife, in monthly instalments. She must pay the family-home mortgage, health insurance and home insurance from that annual sum. The child maintenance was to begin on 3 August 2010.
The family home is to remain jointly owned and, subject to the mortgage lender’s cooperation, the wife is to take responsibility as joint mortgagor. It is to be sold and the net proceeds divided equally when the son ends full-time education or turns 23, whichever occurs first. The wife may buy the husband’s equity for €150,000 if she can raise the capital. The order allows the purchase price to be reduced by unpaid maintenance and by €50,000, representing her share of joint-account funds the husband transferred to the company as a director’s loan. The judgment also provides a route for her to seek a property transfer order if he does not cooperate.
The court ordered the parties’ pension to be divided equally and required half of the husband’s life-insurance benefit to be payable to his wife or her estate if he dies. Her succession rights were preserved for 12 years. The couple’s commercial properties are to remain jointly held, with net sale proceeds divided equally. The husband was made responsible for loans relating to SL Development and for administering the parties’ rental property.
Existing custody arrangements were to continue. The judge suggested that the parents consider arranging at least one overnight each school term for each child to spend separately with each parent, but made no order requiring that change. The husband was ordered to buy or rent accommodation within a year so the children could have separate rooms during overnight stays with him. He was also ordered to pay the daughter’s secondary-school fees in accordance with arrangements permitted by the school. There was no order as to costs.