The Court of Appeal in Kraków, in its judgment of June 15, 2021, reference number I ACa 1006/19, focused on the issue of increasing the maintenance awarded in the divorce judgment. The decision was made as a result of an appeal filed by the claimant. She accused the first-instance court of wrong assessment of the evidence in the case, which contributed to the incorrect assessment of the amount of maintenance due. The plaintiff argued that since the maintenance costs of their minor daughter amounted to approximately PLN 1,400, and the defendant did not exercise personal custody of the child, he should be burdened with a higher maintenance obligation.
At the stage of settling the maintenance obligation, the court of first instance considered that the amount of maintenance remains at the same level as in the security provided, because since then there has been no change in the circumstances affecting the amount of maintenance.
The court of the second instance agreed with the Regional Court that at the time of issuing the divorce judgment, the change of the maintenance allowance in relation to the security would be unjustified. At the same time, he pointed out that pursuant to Art. 445 § 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, during a divorce or separation case, separate proceedings for alimony between spouses and their minor children cannot be brought. In this context, however, it should also be borne in mind that the decision on the maintenance obligation towards children in a divorce case refers to benefits paid after the divorce judgment becomes final. Consequently, in the case of a request to change the decision on maintenance made pursuant to Art. 138 of the Family and Guardianship Code, the assessment of the fulfillment of the condition for a change in relations should be made from the moment the judgment on the maintenance obligation becomes final, and not from the moment of issuing this judgment, and not from the time of the divorce proceedings.
As a result, the Court of Appeal found that the relationship had changed because, since the divorce judgment became final, the parties’ daughter had started attending additional English classes. Inflation and the daughter’s growing financial needs also contributed to the change in relations. None of the aforementioned circumstances violated the socio-economic purpose of the right to maintenance. In view of the above, the court of second instance granted the claimant’s request to increase the maintenance payments awarded to her daughter from the claimant. That judgment had not been dictated by a poor assessment of the evidence by the Regional Court, but by developments which the latter had not been able to foresee.