maintenance
Ladhu Ram Chowdhary
(Querist) 06 October 2008
This query is : Resolved
maintennance can be awarded to wife in case of desertion by herself.pl.give me caselaw of s.c. & other H.C.
ARVIND JAIN
(Expert) 07 October 2008
PL GO TO SUPREMECOURTCASELAW.COM AND SEARCH MAINTENANCE.
sanjay kumar patibandla
(Expert) 07 October 2008
Yes sir she is entitled. Once I saw that judgment. that was s c judgment only. I will search if I found it i will write to you sir. might be in the year 2000 or 2001
K.C.Suresh
(Expert) 08 October 2008
Accademical Line Pl go thjorugh the law of HONG KONG
CACV 182/2007
IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
COURT OF APPEAL
CIVIL APPEAL NO. 182 OF 2007
(ON APPEAL FROM FCMC 11882 OF 2005)
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BETWEEN
FHFK Petitioner
and
NCM Respondent
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Before : Hon Cheung JA, Yeung JA and Lam J in Court
Date of Hearing : 20 June 2008
Date of Judgment : 20 June 2008
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J U D G M E N T
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Hon Cheung JA :
Appeal against decree absolute of divorce
1. The parties were married on 12 September 1995. There are two children of the family, namely, a daughter born on 29 November 1995 and a son born on 25 March 1999.
2. On 20 October 2005 the husband (‘petitioner’) presented a petition for divorce on the ground of desertion by the wife (‘respondent’) for one year immediately before the presentation of the petition. It was alleged in the petition that the wife had deserted the husband since May 2003 when she took the children of the family and left the matrimonial home. It was further alleged that the wife and the children had never returned to the matrimonial home and the husband was unable to locate them.
3. The husband filed an affirmation dated 18 October 2005 in which he claimed that the wife had left the matrimonial home at 2nd Floor, No. 79, Shui Tsan Tin Tsuen, Kam Sheung Road, Pat Heung, Yuen Long, New Territories. He claimed that he was unable to contact the wife and asked for the service of the petition to be effected by an advertisement in the Sun News.
4. It should be noted that the address of the matrimonial home as stated in the petition was different from the one mentioned in this affirmation. The one in the affirmation was the correct address of the matrimonial home. Pursuant to the application Deputy Judge C K Chan on 25 October 2005 authorized the petition to be served by way of advertisement in the Sun News.
5. In a further affirmation dated 11 January 2006 filed by the husband in support of his petition he again claimed that the wife had left the matrimonial home together with the children since May 2003.
6. On 3 May 2006 Judge Chan granted a decree nisi of the divorce. The decree was made absolute on 26 June 2006.
7. Pursuant to leave granted by Judge Chan the wife now appeals, among other things, against the decree nisi and decree absolute of divorce.
Basis of application
8. The basis of the wife’s application is that she had received neither the petition nor the orders nisi or absolute. She came to know of the divorce in the following manner. In early September 2006 a girlfriend informed her that the husband was planning a marriage with his new girlfriend and invitation cards for the wedding had been sent out to friends and relatives. Upon hearing this the wife contacted the husband who then told her that he had issued divorce proceedings in the Family Court and the Court had issued a sealed copy of the decree absolute to him. On 7 September 2006 the husband faxed a copy of the decree to the wife. On 8 September 2006 the wife sought the advice of a firm of solicitors who later obtained copies of the divorce proceedings from the Court.
9. The wife said that the husband left the matrimonial home in January 2005. She and the children had been living in the matrimonial home until 25 September 2005 when she moved out with the children because by then she could no longer afford to pay the mortgage repayment. The husband was aware that she and the children were still living there in early September 2005 because in that month he had come to the matrimonial home together with his mother. The husband was then trying to ask the wife to sign some divorce papers which was refused by the wife.
10. After the wife left the matrimonial home she informed the husband of her new address.
