Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 46

Summary: - The obligation of a person liable for maintenance to pay instalments on loans he obtained does not, by itself, constitute evidence of impaired financial circumstances. The reason: he has already received the benefit of the loans, and the availability of domestic servants in the country does not mean that recruiting a maid is without cost. The judgment under appeal contravening this renders it defective. An example. Rule: The obligation of a person liable for maintenance to pay instalments on loans he obtained does not, by itself, indicate impaired financial circumstances, because he has already received the benefit of those loans, and the availability of domestic servants in the country does not mean that recruiting a maid is without cost. The first-instance judgment, upheld by the judgment under appeal, based its determination of maintenance for the two daughters ...... and ....., in both its forms, the rent for their custodial residence, and the maid’s wages on what the respondent asserted in his defence: that he was burdened with debts, instalments, and obligations in repayment of loans obtained from banks, and that allowances were deducted from his salary because he took study leave. It inferred from this that his financial circumstances were impaired and that his means did not extend beyond the sums awarded against him. It also consequently imposed these maintenance payments from the date of judgment, whereas his payment of loan instalments does not, in itself, indicate impaired financial circumstances on the respondent’s part or that his means do not extend beyond the sums awarded against him. Nor did the court ascertain the compelling necessity for this ruling and those obligations. What the judgment advanced is insufficient to justify its ruling in this respect. Furthermore, its ruling rejecting her claims for the price of a car, a driver’s wages, and the expenses of recruiting a maid lacked a proper basis, given the children in custody’s need for them and the extent of his means. Its assessment of maintenance was also insufficient for the needs of the two young girls, which renders it defective and requires its partial cassation in this respect.