Maintenance payments

Conviction of father for abandonment of family even in case of financial difficulties

Publié le 05 avril 2022 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

A judgment of the family judge fixes a maintenance payment of €800 to a father for the maintenance and upbringing of his two children. Not receiving the payments for more than two months, the mother filed several complaints. The correctional court found the father guilty of the offense of abandoning a family in recidivism and sentenced him to a firm prison term.

The father is challenging that decision. He said he could not be found guilty. He was in financial difficulty in his professional liberal activities and was no longer able to pay maintenance for his children. The Court of Appeal seized by the father, however, confirms his guilt.

The Court of Cassation confirms the decision of the Court of Appeal. On the one hand, she recalls that the father was aware of the judgment which fixed maintenance. He could not therefore deny his obligation to support his children. On the other hand, even if he may have encountered financial difficulties, he does not seriously justify deprivation preventing him from honoring his debt to the mother of his children.

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