Prince-Campbell (Sonja Owena) v Cunningham Campbell

• Jurisdiction: Jamaica
• Judge: MORRISON, J (Ag.)
• Judgment Date: 30 January 2008
• Judgment citation (vLex): [2008] 1 JJC 3001
• Court: Supreme Court (Jamaica)
• Docket Number: SUIT NO. F/D 2014 OF 2003
• Date: 30 January 2008

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE OF JAMAICA

IN THE FAMILY DIVISION

SUIT NO. F/D 2014 OF 2003

BETWEEN

SONJA OWENA PRINCE-CAMPBELL

APPLICANT/PETITIONER

AND

CUNNINGHAM CAMPBELL

RESPONDENT

FAMILY LAW - Maintenance - Application - Whether wife entitled to maintenance - Maintenance Act 2005

1 Application by wife to apply for maintenance under the Maintenance Act 2005Maintenance Act 2005

MORRISON, J (Ag.)

2 By way of Notice of Application for Ancillary Relief dated 1/ 2/2005 the Applicant enjoins the Court to order the Respondent to pay to her the sum of $100,000.00 per month towards her maintenance. In this regard she has deponed in (3) affidavits giving reasons to buttress her claim.

3 The Respondent has sought to discredit the reasons advanced by his erstwhile wife by asserting in (2) affidavits the demerits of her attestations as well as by relying on his unemployment and his impecuniosity by his rejection of her claim.

4 The facts are of the utmost simplicity. The parties were married on the 1 ^st day of January 1993. That marriage ended on 9 ^th December, 2005. On $25, 000.00 per month to the Petitioner. His first payment was to commence on or before 31 ^st December 2007.

5 In substance the Applicant avers that she was made redundant by her former employee, WINDALCO, in or about 1994. Consequent upon this event she supervised and managed a farm jointly owned by them. She also took on the responsibility of purchasing material for the farm and making deliveries of the farm's produce. This she did, along with other tasks, without ever been compensated therefor.

6 The parties cohabited for seventeen (17) years and for (12) twelve of those years they lived together as man and wife. The Petitioner worked for eleven (11) years on their joint farm without reward. The Petitioner is now homeless she having had to leave because of the Respondent's improbity. Earlier, she had in 1994 made to give up her position as secretary and thereafter retired to the matrimonial home which she looked after in tandem with the farm. She lost contact with the professional world since 1994 and has been unable to recapture or re-insinuate herself into that professional milieu despite her efforts owing to her near superannuated age of (51) years.

7 The marriage was to further deteriorate in or around 2001. She avers that the Respondent's deviation from rectitude resulted in her withdrawing from the matrimonial bed. He was lost to shame and dead to honour. The Respondent meanwhile ceased to contribute, monetarily to their expenses. He took over their banking transactions in relation to the farm thereby forcing her to exist on the generosity of neighbours and friends. She avouches that she has attempted, without success, to find employment compatible with her secretarial skills. She, however, received temporary employment from which she earned...