No priority
is to be given to a first or second wife, say the Privy Council in a Jamaican
case last month. A first wife applied to increase her ongoing maintenance
payments. Her former husband had remarried. The Court of Appeal had decided
that a husband could not be required to maintain his first wife indefinitely,
especially as he had remarried. The Court of Appeal had replaced the ongoing
maintenance payments with a final lump sum payment. The Privy Council said that
decision was wrong; and, applied the English law principle that although the
first wife’s claims should not take priority, neither should his second wife’s
claims. The Privy Council sent the first wife’s case for increasing her ongoing
maintenance payments to the Supreme Court to be re-heard and ordered there to
be ongoing interim maintenance payments made by the husband to her meanwhile.
The Cripps
family team frequently deal with varying maintenance orders. If you would like
to discuss varying an order or any other family law issue, please call Cripps
on 01892 515121 and ask to speak to a member of the family team.