SL v Child Maintenance Enforcement Commission; Brough v Law and Another
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 20 October 2011 |
| Date | 20 October 2011 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
Court of Appeal
Before Lord Justice Pill, Lord Justice Rimer and Lord Justice Lewison
A brief reconciliation between parents did not bring to an end a maintenance assessment under which an absent parent was liable to pay maintenance in respect of a qualifying child to the parent with care.
The Court of Appeal so held, dismissing the appeal of the father, Michael Brough, against the decision of Judge Levenson in the Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber) ([2009]UKUT 270 (AAC)) allowing the appeal of the mother, Sharon Law, against the decision of the Appeal Tribunal on April 8, 2009, that the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions had no power to continue a maintenance assessment making the father, as the absent parent, liable to pay beyond the date in September 1999 when a brief reconciliation began.
Ms Kerry Bretherton and Mr Dean Underwood, assigned by the Bar Pro Bono Unit, for the father; Ms Dinah Rose, QC and Ms Jessica Boyd, assigned by the Free Representation Unit, for the mother; Mr Tim Buley for the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission.
LORD JUSTICE PILL said that the primary issue was whether paragraph 16(1)(b) of Schedule 1 to the Child Support Act 1991 applied to a situation in which the parents of "a qualifying child" under the Act had been reconciled, and had lived together in the same household, for a short pe riod so as to bring to an end a maintenance assessment made in respect of that child.
It was submitted for the father that the reconciliation for about six weeks had brought the maintenance assessment to an end and everything done subsequently had been a nullity. During the short reconciliation the father had not been an "absent parent" within section 3(1) of the 1991 Act, with the result that the child was no longer a "qualifying child" and thus, by paragraph 16(1), the maintenance agreement of January 1999 had ceased to have effect.
The mother and the commission disputed that. The Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000 had brought in statutory changes, both substantive and procedural. However, the present case was "an old scheme case" as transitional provisions provided that applications for child support made be fore March 3, 2003, continued to be governed by the earlier rules.
On November 23, 1998, Commissioner Mesher in (R(CS)8/99) had adopted the submission made for the father in the present case. Commissioner Turnbull had followed that...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Technology, Media & Telecommunications Predictions 2012
...however, spending on larger ticket items such as cars and housing remains slow. Source: What Americans are(n't) buying, Financial Times, 7 November 2011: http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2011/11/07/731141 4 American Households Spend More Than $1,100 Annually On Consumer Electronics, CEA Stud......
-
Power Undermines Our Civil-Rights Laws and Makes Us Less Free
...2010, at 14, 15. 9 See Joyce Appleby, The Wealth Divide: The Bottom 60% in the U.S. Has Never Had More than 11% of the Wealth , L.A. TIMES, Nov. 7, 2011, at A15. 10 Danné L. Johnson, Untwisting Lifeline Nonprofits in the Economic Crisis , 18 GEO. J. ON POVERTY L. & POL’Y 201, 221–22 (2011).......
-
AGAINST SECONDARY MEANING.
...[https://perma.cc/S4B9-QC5D]; see Jane L. Levere, Ivory Soap Refreshes Its Ads and Its Look, but Is Resolutely Simple, N.Y. TIMES (Nov. 7, 2011), https://www.ny-times.com/2011/11/08/business/media/ivory-soap-refreshes-its-ads-and-its-look.html (55) Abercrombie, 537 F.2d at 9 n.6. (56) Urgen......
-
The Lesson of the 2011 Nfl and Nba Lockouts: Why Courts Should Not Immediately Recognize Players' Union Disclaimers of Representation
...and impose a new economic system. Id. 243. See Beck, supra note 242; Howard Beck, Facing Deadline, Players Committee Will Confer, N.Y. Times, Nov. 7, 2011, at D4. 244. See Howard Beck, N.B.A. Negotiations Resume, with Possible Breakthrough, N.Y. Times, Nov. 10, 2011, at B13. 245. See Beck, ......
-
Introduction to Environmental Information
...in Los Angeles, California: EPA’s Secret List Shows Pollution Unchecked , L.A. Times, Nov. 7, 2011, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/11/epas-secret-list-shows-pollution-unchecked.html; and in New Orleans, Louisiana: 29 Louisiana Plants Show Up on Secret EPA Watch List of Air ......