Good afternoon, friends.
After five years of marriage, a man in Nigeria filed a petition in court to divorce his wife.While this petition was pending in court, the wife, who was a full-time house wife,did not have any financial support from the husband again and this made things too difficult for her to bear.Though they still lived under the same roof, the husband had abandoned the wife with their three children.Any time the wife approached him for support, he would say since their divorce petition was pending in court and the household was about to be closed, he had no business with her again.
THE LEGAL POSITION
Section 70 (2) of the Matrimonial Causes Act, Cap.M7, Vol. 8,Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 empowers the High Court of any state of the Federation to make an order for the maintenance of a party to a marriage pending the determination of the main proceedings which may be divorce proceedings.Each of the wife and her children in our scenario qualifies as 'a party' to that marriage within the purview of that above-cited provision of the law.
Thus, as there was dissolution proceedings pending in court in respect of the couple's marriage,the wife in the above scenario still had a right to approach the same court ,which was hearing her husband's divorce petition, for an order of maintenance in favour of herself and her children pending the determination of the petition brought by the husband.The essence of this kind of order is to refrain a husband from running away from his responsibility as the head of the house even when either of the spouses has brought a petition for dissolution of marriage so that the wife and the children of the marriage will not suffer during the time the petition is pending.
See you on Monday. Thank you for your attention. Have a fulfilling weekend!
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