M. v M

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1980
• Date: 01 January 1980
• Court: High Court

(H.C.)

M

and

M

Purchase of public house - Husband's contributions thereto - Facts not in dispute - Joint ownership with wife and wife's sister - Purchase of wife's sister's interest in premises - Financial difficulties - Husband by agreement going to U.S.A. - Regular remittances to service loans on premises - Sale of premises - Wife and children living free with wife's sister - Purchase of house by wife -House an investment - Loans - Repayments - Contributions by husband - Presumption of advancement rebutted - Contribution by wife of 8¹/₂% and by husband 19% to initial purchase price - Loans discharged equally by husband and wife - Husband entitled to 40% and wife to 60% interest in premises - Married Women's Status Act, 1957 (No. 5 of 1957), s. 12.

The plaintiff husband and the defendant wife, both Irish, were married in New York, U.S.A. in 1960. Both had worked for some time there but the defendant ceased to work on the occasion of her marriage. Four children were born in 1961, 1962, 1966 and 1967 and the family...