A Note on the Maintenance Orders Act, 1950
| DOI | 10.1177/002201835802200213 |
| Published date | 01 April 1958 |
| Date | 01 April 1958 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Anote on the Maintenance
Orders
Act,
1950
THE above Act was passed with the purpose of enablingwife-
maintenance, guardianship of infants, affiliation
and
certain other analogous orders to be made
and
enforced
throughout the United Kingdom, and in particular to over-
come
the
difficulties which had been revealed in
the
cases of
Forsyth v. Forsyth (1948 P. 123)
and
Macrae v. Macrae (1949 P.
272).
The
Act was clearly intended to furnish the courts with
additional powers since s. 27 (1) enacts
that
"Nothing
in this
Act shall be construed as derogating from any jurisdiction
exercisable, apart from
the
provisions of this Act, by any
court in any
part
of the
United
Kingdom". Those who have
had
experience of
the
working of the Act will probably agree
that
it has done something to facilitate the making
and
enforce-
ment of such orders,
but
a case has been brought to our notice
which suggests
that
the
Act leaves at least one serious gap.
In
this case an English court was concerned with enforcing
two bastardy orders made by another court in England against
an Englishman.
The
defendant was brought before
the
court
on a warrant, and an alternative of imprisonment was fixed in
default of paying
the
arrears,
the
execution of such warrant
being suspended so long as the defendant paid
the
weekly
amount of
the
orders, plus a
sum
off the arrears.
(It
is perhaps
worth
noting-although
not strictlyof legal
interest-that
when
the defendant first appeared before the court he pleaded sick-
ness
and
inability to obtain work, and before the alternative of
imprisonment was fixed he was fit to work
and
had been
found work by one of
the
magistrates at a basic wage of £15
weekly.
The
bastardy orders were merely for 7s. 6d. each.)
The
defendant did not pay as ordered and
the
warrant was
handed to the police for execution. Unfortunately it seems
that
the defendant heard the Police were looking for him,
and
he fled to Scotland.
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