The Provincial Court of Barcelona has denied the appeal presented by a father who He requested to stop paying the alimony of 425 euros to his two children of legal age. For the Court, economic difficulties were not sufficient reason to stop fulfilling their obligations when paying the alimony previously agreed, in addition to not being in an absolute poverty.
According to the sentence, everything begins in the Court of First Instance No. 8 of Badalona, with file 415/2022, where the plaintiff filed a request for stop paying food pension to their two children of legal age, 21 and 23 years old. As established in a previous judgment of 2019, I had to pay 225 euros per month for your child and 200 euros for your daughterwhat added 425 euros in total.
In his request, he argued that his economic situation was precarious, with income that barely reached 800 euros per month. In addition, he claimed that he had no relationship with his children for years. Despite this, the Court of First Instance dismissed his request, considering that his economic situation had not changed with respect to the last sentence issued in 2019in which the alimony was set, and that, therefore, there were no enough reasons to modify or suspend the payment obligation.
Regarding the lack of relationship with his children, the Court determined that it could not be considered that said fault was only the responsibility of young people, so this argument did not justify the extinction of the pension, as stated in judgment number 141 /2023.
Only 375 euros had had
Not in accordance with the decision, this father put an appeal before the Provincial Court of Barcelona with the intention of revoking the decision of the Court of First Instance and achieving the extinction of the food pension of his children of legal age. This man I wanted the pension to be withdrawn because its income did not exceed 800 euros per month when it should pay 425 euros of pension And because He did not keep contact with his children For years. According to his version, his income level was very low, which prevented him from fulfilling the pension, and the lack of relationship with his children was exclusively their fault.
On this last point, this father based his argument on the Article 237-13 of the Civil Code of Cataloniawhich allows suppressing the alimony in cases where the elderly breaks the relationship with the parent unjustified. Despite his arguments, the Provincial Court rejected his request because he did not see justification to remove the pension for his economic situation and because it was not proven that the lack of relationship with his children was just their fault.
As for the income, the court determined that There was no absolute povertysince although his economic situation had not changed, he had a couple who worked full time and who was administrator of the company where they both worked. Therefore, the court determined that There were not enough evidence to prove that it was impossible to comply with the payment of the pension. In addition, as established in article 237 at points 4, 9 and 7, economic difficulties do not automatically justify the extinction of the pension, unless there is an absolute poverty situation, which in this case was not accredited.