Both parties must be heard in divorce cases

The Dubai Court of Cassation issued two legal principles with regards to personal cases following the hearing of a divorce argument.

The first principle states that the judgement in personal cases cannot be validated if one of the opposing parties does not present his or her witnesses before the presiding judge in court.

The second principle says the declaration in court can be made by the relevant police station only in the event of the defandant failing to accept the announcement.

The divorce case came up for hearing at the Court of Cassation as the man was unhappy with the ruling of the Court of First Instance.

At the Court of First Instance, the wife had filed a case against him seeking divorce and asked the court to order him pay her marriage expense and support their son. She had demanded that the husband offer her a furnished house, pay its annual rent including utility bills, repay the Dh20,000 dowry, and arrange for salaries of two servants - one for herself and another for her son.

She had alleged the husband had abandoned her after delivery and that she was forced to stay with her family.

The Court of First Instance heard the witnesses of the woman and granted her request for divorce, and ordered the husband to pay Dh1,000 as monthly alimony from the date of the proceedings until the date of sentencing; pay Dh750 monthly as child support and Dh2,400 for her accomodation beginning from the date of issuing the verdict.

The court did not grant her request of a fully-furnished house, payment of utility bills and salaries for two servants.

However, the husband did not accept the ruling and appealed with the Court of Appeal which upheld the verdict.

Subsequently, the husband moved the Court of Cassation, which accepted the case and referred the issue to another judicial district.

The husband based his appeal on two legal principles - that the Court of First Instance had not heard his witnesses and, therefore, the verdict was not complete; and the police station that looked into the case had not made the announcement.

The Court of Cassation while upholding his first appeal rejected the second one. It said the witnesses of both the parties need to be heard in court before passing the judgement. However, it is not mandatory for the concerned police station to make the declaration in court if the defandant has received the same as per Personal Status Law No28 of Federal 2005.

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