FCMC 10933 / 2022

[2024] HKFC 147

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

MATRIMONIAL CAUSES NO. 10933 OF 2022

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BETWEEN

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JUDGMENT
(Ancillary Relief)

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A. Introduction and Background

1. This judgment follows a Trial in October/November 2023 of the parties’ respective claims for ancillary/financial relief.

2. Both parties were born in Hong Kong, and have lived most of their lives here. The Petitioner/Wife was born in 1978 and is 45 years of age. She works as a production manager for her family’s company (“SCL”), a jewellery design and manufacturing company, earning HK$25,000 per month. (Unless otherwise stated, all references to dollar amounts in this Judgment are to Hong Kong dollars).

3. The Respondent/Husband was born in 1976 and is 48. He studied computing, networking and telecommunications engineering in Melbourne, graduating in 2002. He then returned to Hong Kong and pursued a Master’s degree at HKU, graduating in 2004. He then worked for a financial technology company as a systems engineer. He has worked in this field for various financial institutions and is currently a systems analyst for a major bank, with a salary of about $93,700 per month.

4. The parties met in 2010 and became romantically involved the following year. They were married in October 2012 in Hong Kong. They have one child, a son born in December 2016 who is now aged 7 (“the Child”). The Child attends a local primary school and at the time of this judgment has just completed P1. H has another child (a son, aged 2) from a post-separation relationship, who lives with him (the mother of the child lives elsewhere, in Hong Kong).

5. By Order dated 9 July 2021, the parties have joint custody of the Child, with care and control to W and reasonable access to H. A further order was made on 16 June 2022 defining access including providing for staying access from Friday 5pm to Saturday evening. Pending determination of the ancillary relief claims, an interim Order has been in place since 12 January 2023 which requires H to pay $8,000 per month to W for child maintenance.

6. The marriage was not a happy one and there were frequent quarrels from the outset. In the years before their son was born there were several occasions when the Wife left the matrimonial home and stayed with relatives. Eventually, in July 2018, after an argument which became physical, W moved out with the Child to a rented apartment. H exhibited photographs to one of his affirmations which he says show bruising he sustained during the dispute.

7. In October 2018, W filed a Petition (FCMC 13043/2018) (“ the First Petition ”) seeking dissolution of the marriage alleging unreasonable behaviour by H.

8. The parties then received marriage counselling, and they a