The High Court affirmed a judicial separation order and varied financial arrangements between a couple, including requiring their family home to be sold by 1 February 2021 and adjusting pension provision in favour of the wife.
Mr Justice Henry Abbott delivered the judgment on 11 December 2015 in an appeal by the husband from a Circuit Court order made on 19 November 2014. The High Court affirmed the separation and the custody order. The judgment does not set out the custody arrangements anew.
The couple married in the UK in 1990 and have three children, identified in the judgment only by initials. At the time of the judgment, the husband lived in the four-bedroom family home with the two youngest children; the wife lived in rented accommodation with the oldest child.
The Circuit Court order had provided for monthly maintenance of €2,000, payment of certain household and child-related expenses, and sale of the house when the youngest child reached 23. The High Court said the parties accepted that mistakes in drafting meant the written order did not adequately reflect what the Circuit Court had decided.
In considering the appeal, the High Court weighed the spouses’ incomes, needs, accommodation and pensions. The judgment recorded that the husband earned between €9,000 and €10,000 a month, with a possible annual bonus, while the wife earned €600 net from part-time work and received €270 in children’s allowances. It also noted the husband’s health difficulties, the wife’s lack of a pension fund, and the need to provide for the children’s education.
The court replaced the maintenance and outgoings provisions with a total payment of €3,000 a month: €2,500 for the wife and €250 for each of the two dependent children living with her. The husband must also continue paying the family-home mortgage until the sale and maintain VHI cover as before. The order includes school fees, utilities and other outgoings in the monthly payment.
The house must be sold on or before 1 February 2021. The wife’s right to occupy it until sale was affirmed. The court also confirmed orders under sections 14 and 15(a) of the Family Law Act, subject to conditions tied to the youngest child reaching 18.
The High Court confirmed the existing order concerning the K. pension fund and made a similar order for a small UK fund. It also ordered a pension adjustment in the wife’s favour in respect of all Irish pensions, including contingent benefits. The order allows for maintenance to be reduced by pension income if the husband facilitates drawdown at age 60 or the earliest date afterwards, after the wife takes the tax-free lump sum. If she does not cooperate with the drawdown arrangement, the husband may apply to court for a reduction calculated on the basis that drawdown had occurred.