R v R

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: Mr. Justice McMohan
• Judgment Date: 12 January 1979
• Neutral Citation: 1978 WJSC-HC 502
• Docket Number: No. 243 Sp Ct./1978
• Court: High Court
• Date: 12 January 1979

1978 WJSC-HC 502

THE HIGH COURT

No. 243 Sp Ct./1978

R. v. R.

IN THE MATTER OF THE MARRIED WOMENS STATUS ACT 1957

BETWEEN:

R

Plaintiff

and

R

Defendant

1 Judgment of Mr. Justice McMohan delivered the 12th day of January 1979

2 These proceedings are brought by the wife who is the Plaintiff by a Special Summons claiming an Order under Section 12 Married Womens Status Act 1957declaring that she is entitled to the sole beneficial interest in the family home or alternatively determining the extent of her beneficial interest in the premises.

3 The parties were married in March 1968. They had been going together for some years before marriage. The husband is a machine operator in a Dublin firm. The wife was aged eighteen on marriage and the husband was some years older than his wife.

4 For the first year of their marriage the parties lived in a mobile home which the husband had acquired. He then brought a home in a County Dublin village by means of a mortgage. He obtained some of the money for the deposit of £500 by the sale of the mobile home and some by borrowing from a Credit Union. The House was purchased in the husband's name.

5 There were no children of the marriage. The parties seperated and the marriage broke up in September 1973. The family home has been sold with the wife's consent and the nett proceeds are held by the husband's solicitor pending the outcome of these proceedings. The wife has resumed employment and has not made any claim on the husband for maintenance.

6 Before the marriage the wife held various jobs and she continued to work after marriage. The records of the Department of Social Welfare which have been proved show that between July 1968 and July 1973 the wife was employed for a total of 166 weeks, that is, an average of 33 weeks per year. The wife claims that the money she earned was spent on her own necessaries and on meeting the expenses of the household and in that way her earnings helped her husband to meet the mortgage repayments on the house and she is therefore entitled to a beneficial interest in the proceeds of the sale. The husband swore an affidavit in which he said that after they were married his wife worked for short periods only and all the money which she earned was spent on herself on make-up, buying clothes and having her hair done. Faced with the records of the wife's employment from the Department of Social Welfare the husband retreated somewhat from...