A judge forces a man to pay 200,000 euros to his ex-wife for the care of his daughters

The court of first instance of Vélez-Málaga (Málaga, 82,967 inhabitants) has ruled that a man must pay his ex-partner 204,000 euros "as compensation for unpaid domestic work done in the home" during the 25 years they were married.

The sentence, handed down by Judge Laura Ruiz Alaminos, also includes a compensatory pension of 500 euros per month for the next two years for the woman - who is 48 - as well as another two of 400 and 600 euros for her two daughters, aged 14 and 20 years.

In addition, it obliges the parties to bear half of the extraordinary expenses generated by both, from the dentist to the optician or the school support classes, among other cases.

The lawsuit was filed in December 2020, months after the couple separated.

The marriage took place on June 23, 1995 when the spouses were in their twenties.

In July of that same year they signed the separation of assets.

Since then, he has developed a professional career that includes the opening of several gyms in the provinces of Jaén and Málaga, as well as parquet installation companies, enclosures or the sale of bodybuilding machinery, among other activities.

Thanks to his work, he was able to acquire a 70-hectare olive farm in Alhama de Granada, where oil is produced and which, according to the ruling, generates a monthly income "of between 3,000 and 4,000 euros."

"When we filed the lawsuit, the land was for sale for four million euros," according to the woman's lawyer, Marta Fuentes, who points out that the ex-husband's assets include luxury cars, real estate,

While he grew professionally, she stayed at home to take care of her daughters.

The first was born in 2003 and the second in 2009. “She spent all that time taking her family forward.

So that he could have a business project, she stayed with the girls and they never hired anyone to help her,” the lawyer points out.

"It has been her exclusive work," insists the lawyer, who recounts how the family has been moving from time to time to different municipalities in Malaga based on the needs of the man.

"She was his shadow, working behind him so that he would grow professionally and become something," adds the legal representative, who affirms that the father did not want his daughter to do higher studies and that is why when the girl was 16 years old she was working to pay his tuition.

he took everything

In 2020 the woman got tired of the situation and filed for divorce.

Due to the separation of property regime, he was left with all of her assets and she only with half of a house whose property they shared.

With the lawsuit filed in December of that year, she sought recognition for the work done at home during 25 years of marriage.

That is why her lawyer did the math to value that domestic job by calculating the minimum interprofessional salary for each year.

has advanced

today, is the figure that the judge now recognizes and that obliges the ex-husband to pay him as compensation for the work done at home during the marriage and that had not been paid in any way. .

The sentence, published on February 27, states that since they were married in 1995 the woman "has essentially dedicated herself to working at home, that is, taking care of the home and family with all that that implies."

And that is why she recognizes in her favor the amount of just over 204,000 euros that her ex-husband must pay her.

She does so by virtue of article 1,438 of the Civil Code that says: “The spouses will contribute to the support of the marriage burdens.

In the absence of an agreement, they will do so proportionally to their respective economic resources.

The work for the house will be computed as a contribution to the charges and will give the right to obtain compensation that the Judge will indicate, in the absence of an agreement, to the extinction of the separation regime.

“It is an item that is rarely used and is valued less, but the intention is to normalize it.

She, like many other women, has spent her entire working life dedicated to her daughters while her husbands had time to develop their professional careers.

And it is important that this is recognized, that the time that she has dedicated to her family and not to her professional life has value," says lawyer Marta Fuentes, who stresses that during the 25 years of marriage her client only developed a few jobs at her ex-husband's gyms for which she was never paid.

In February another sentence came to light, in this case in Galicia, in which the Provincial Court of Pontevedra established that a man had to pay compensation of 34,980.15 euros to his ex-wife, with whom he was married for 34 years, for having dedicated to taking care of the three children they had and the common home.

The sentence includes an alimony in favor of his daughters of 1,000 euros per month —600 for the eldest and 400 for the youngest, to whom his father offered 300— and an alimony of 500 euros for the woman.

After her separation, she has studied Compulsory Secondary Education for people over 18 years of age, has been working on a one-off basis as a cleaner and took the Post Office opposition.

A health problem, as recognized by her own sentence, is holding her back.

"Now she has financial support to move forward, as will her daughters," concludes the lawyer, who assures that the ex-husband has already announced her intention to appeal the sentence.