Malaga court orders man to pay 80,000 euros to his ex-wife for the care of their children

A Malaga court has ordered a man to pay 80,000 euros to his ex-wife to compensate her for the care of their children.

The couple married in May 2009 and have three children between the ages of 4 and 11, but the woman filed for divorce in October last year. She requested joint custody of the children, even though she was granted custody of them, as well as an allowance of 1,650 euros per month (550 per child).

She also requested her ex-husband provide a villa in Vélez-Málaga, constituting it as the family home, and a pension of 1,500 euros per month for life, as well as compensation of 191,000 euros for the care of the home and their children for more than a decade.

The ex-husband only agreed to the condition of joint custody. He offered another property as the family home, a penthouse in the centre of Vélez Malaga, and objected to the amount of compensation his ex-wife wanted him to pay. The judge decided to grant the mother and the children the use of the penthouse.

The woman also requested she be paid 1,200 euros in child support (400 per child) and came to that figure based on the father's financials "who has a significant business activity", and considering she is not currently working due to health reasons.

But the judge refused to grant this to the mother. "It cannot be considered as compensation... the idea that because she was a housewife she has the right to continue to be so for life today is not admissible," the judge said. "The compensatory pension has a rebalancing purpose in the face of an economic imbalance caused by separation or divorce," according to the ruling.

Instead, the judge ordered the ex-husband to compensate her with 79,200 euros for the period that "she did not work outside the home". The court decision is not yet final.