No more payments to ex-wife

A dentist whose alcoholic ex-wife lives with a new partner need not go on supporting her for life or until remarriage, the court of appeal ruled yesterday.

Peter Fleming, 49, challenged a court order that he must continue supporting his former wife, Pauline - who is also qualified as a dentist but has not worked full-time since 1979 - even though she has been living with a new partner for five-and-a-half years.

The law bans maintenance claims by spouses who remarry but not by those who simply cohabit with another partner.

Lord Justice Thorpe, who delivered the judgment, appeared to indicate that the distinction was likely to be reconsidered by parliament under plans to legislate on the rights and responsibilities of cohabitees. But his clerk later said his words had been misunderstood. A spokesman for the Department of Constitutional Affairs said there were no plans to legislate.

Mr Fleming and his former wife, also 49, agreed in a settlement a year after their divorce in 1997 that he would pay her £1,000 a month maintenance until November last year, when payments would cease.

But in July last year, she won a county court order extending the period for the rest of her life at a rate of £500 a month. Mr Fleming's income was said to be £133,000 a year.

Mr Fleming, of Bedlington, Northumberland, took the case to the court of appeal where three judges yesterday overturned the ruling by Judge Michael Taylor at Newcastle-upon-Tyne county court.

Lord Justice Thorpe said Judge Taylor had found that Mrs Fleming, also of Bedlington, could earn up to £20,000 a year working part-time as a dentist, and her partner, Eric McCartin, could earn up to £25,000.

The appeal judge said there had been a "fundamental flaw" in Judge Taylor's finding that Mrs Fleming would suffer or risk financial hardship if payments were terminated because the couple's outgoings were less than their potential income.

He said she would not have been able to make a claim for the payments to be extended if she had remarried instead of cohabiting.

Mr Fleming, who has looked after the couple's four children since the divorce and has had two more children since remarrying, said: "I am absolutely delighted."

Robin Spon-Smith, representing Mr Fleming, told Lords Justices Thorpe, Jonathan Parker and Scott Baker that Mrs Fleming had a history of alcoholism.