The Sixth Chamber of the Provincial Court of Pontevedra, based in Vigo, has ratified a sentence handed down in the divorce proceedings of a couple according to which the man must compensate his ex-wife with the amount of 34,980.15 euros for the work that she carried out during different periods at home and caring for their children while they were married under a separate property regime.
The sentence ratified by the Provincial Court was issued by the Court of First Instance and Instruction 2 of Redondela in 2021 and given that the ex-husband has renounced filing an appeal, it is final and makes Isabel the first person in Galicia to claim and Get this kind of compensation.
The judgment of the Court, in addition to the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court, is based on article 1438 of the Civil Code.
“The spouses will contribute to support the burdens of the marriage. In the absence of an agreement, they will do so in proportion to their respective economic resources. The work for the house will be computed as a contribution to the burdens and will give the right to obtain compensation that the Judge will indicate, at lack of agreement, to the extinction of the separation regime”, says the article of the Civil Code.
It is, says the Provincial Court in the resolution to which EFE has agreed, “a contribution in kind that must be taken into account to rebalance the situation of almost inevitable inequality between the assets of the spouses in a regime of separation of property, especially for the spouse without work activity who has focused his dedication on caring for the children and the family home”.
The first instance ruling and ratified by the Provincial Court limited the compensation to the periods from January 2011 to December 2011, when she worked with her mother-in-law in street vending for the liquidation of the family business; and from January 2012 to October 2014, time in which she makes a weighted calculation of 70%, having completed some training courses.
Isabel’s ex-husband filed an appeal, arguing that the work contributed by Isabel to the home was not significantly relevant, that the collaboration at home was as a couple, that during both periods she took different training courses and that her children were already older old.
However, the first instance judge “carries out a meticulous study and evaluation of the evidence” and concludes that the grounds for appeal aimed at questioning the origin of the compensation “fail.”
Another thing is to set the criteria for the specific quantification of the compensation, since the aforementioned article of the Civil Code says nothing about it, for which reason different criteria have been used in previous sentences.
In this case, the first instance judge, among other things, considered the cost it would have had for the couple to hire a person to do the work done by Isabel in their home, as well as the degree of exclusivity of their contribution to said work, which prevented him from enriching his own patrimony with activities unrelated to the maintenance of the family.
In addition, depending on the period in question, she valued her contribution to the work of the other spouse when he was sick, her contribution to a family business for which she was not registered, and the fact that during that time she did not perform any other job .
For periods in which she took some training courses and caring for her three children was no longer so demanding, the judge applied a percentage of 70% of the minimum wage.
All this seems correct to the Sixth Chamber of the Provincial Court, which ratifies practically point by point the first instance sentence, of which it affirms that it takes into account the doctrine of the Supreme Court and calculates “in a considered and motivated manner “compensation of 34,980.15 euros, for which reason the appeal filed by the ex-husband is dismissed.
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