Mickovski v Liddell

Judgment

Lady Justice Macur :

This application for permission to appeal was listed for hearing before the full court at the direction of the single judge, with appeal to follow if successful. We refused permission to appeal and ordered the applicant to pay the respondent’s costs in the sum of £3453. These are the reasons for our decision.

A brief summary of the relevant and uncontentious facts will suffice. The parties were married for 11 years. There are two children of the family, now aged 7 and 5. Ms Liddell (“the wife”) is primary care giver. A financial order was made by consent in March 2013 providing her with a lump sum of £555,000, representing her interest in the former matrimonial home, a half share of the balances in all joint bank accounts, and periodical payments for herself at the rate of £8,400 per annum payable monthly in advance, for a period of 7 years after the first payment, to be increased annually in line with the RPI.

Mr Mickovski (“the husband”) made application dated 29 July 2015 to vary the periodical payments order on the basis of a significant drop in his income, and a significant rise in the wife’s income following her return to full time, or near full time, employment. The husband has re-married and said he was dependent on his second wife’s earnings whilst she remained in employment. He retains an interest in the former matrimonial home. The wife co-habits but says she does not receive financial assistance from her cohabitee. She and the children live in accommodation purchased by the wife after the marital breakdown.

The order under challenge is that of Miss Recorder Cudby made on the 10 February 2016 by which she refused the husband’s application to vary the periodical payments order by revoking the same and, instead, capitalised the periodical payments order in the sum of £34,000.

Neither the husband or the wife were represented in the court below. Both husband and wife gave oral evidence before the lower court but there is no transcript of the proceedings, save those which followed after judgment. However, the documentation produced and relied upon in the court below, including the written submissions filed by both parties, is now lodged with, and before, this court and reveals the bases of their respective cases and their terms of engagement with the court process.

The husband filed a position statement dated 10 th February 2016 alleging a “significant reduction in his income in early March 2015…He was left to rel