A ruling from the Provincial Court of Pontevedra has condemned a man to pay his ex-wife the amount of 88,025 euros in compensation for work at home during the 26 years they were married. The Court, according to La Voz de Galicia, concludes that the fact that “she returns to the labor market 26 years later, at the age of 58, leaves her little room for professional aspirations and her husband has sufficient economic capacity to cope.” The Court calculates that the woman should have received a salary of 282 euros per month for her domestic tasks.
The ruling, published on November 20, 2023 and now coming to light, partially agrees with him and revokes a previous resolution by a family judge from Vigo who awarded her 120,000 euros in 2022. The Court lowers the figure at 26% because it takes into account that the woman did household chores that also benefited herself and that the man also contributed his own resources to the maintenance of the house. In addition, the court supports that the woman receives a compensatory pension of 350 euros per month for three years.
Both appealed the first sentence. She, because she understood that the figure was insufficient; and he, on the contrary. The amount that the woman initially claimed was 183,629 euros in compensation. This amount came from equating her theoretical domestic salary to the interprofessional minimum during the 26 years of marriage, with the exception of a few months that she worked as an employee. Likewise, she recalled that after the marital crisis, she had to go live as a renter because her ex-husband remained in her family home, his property, because they had separation of property.
The first ruling considered that the cessation of cohabitation created a situation of imbalance for her with respect to her husband, and that she did not carry out any stable work activity. During her marriage, she dedicated herself to taking care of the home and raising their daughter together.
The husband appealed for a reduction of the compensatory pension from 120,000 euros to 60,000, alleging that once his wife left him he “immediately” joined the workforce and that the marriage “did not cause or cause the economic imbalance” that the other party argues. Furthermore, she emphasizes the absence of future dedication to the family because the daughter is now of age and does not live in her mother’s home.
Faced with the ruling of the Provincial Court of Pontevedra, there is still the possibility of filing an appeal before the Supreme Court.