Law and the Family
1(a) Nina and Paula are same sex partners who have been living together for about five years. Recently Nina bought Paula a ‘commitment ring’ [valued at £20,000] to demonstrate their relationship. They began to plan a wedding. They went ahead and booked a well known and very expensive band to play at what their wedding. People began to give them presents in advance and Nina’s mother Ruby gave Nina a plot of land on which to build a house, although it is in Nina’s name only. Nina’s mother even said to Nina that if she wanted to, she could sell the plot and use the money in relation to another house: ‘it was up to her’. Cash gifts also came flooding in from Nina’s family (as they are much wealthier than Paula’s). In total there is £40,000 in cash and luxury items and presents. However, their relationship has ‘hit the rocks’ and now Nina has broken it off and wants the ring back, while Paula says she won’t give it back, and wants her ‘share’ of the land and the cash and the gifts, and says that Nina should reimburse her for the loss of her deposit which she paid when she booked the band which was £5,500.00
Advise Nina. (50 marks)
1(b) Mary and Ben were living together for 20 years, ever since Mary move
into Ben’s house. She has never worked and spent her time as the homemaker
looking after their one son. Now that their son has grown up and left home.
Ben wants the relationship to end and wants her to move out. He feels the
relationship has run its course. Mary wants to know whether she can claim any
share of their home and whether she can get any financial support from Ben.
She is concerned that she will struggle to get a job at her age (50 years old). She
also wants to know whether he can just force her out. Indeed, she would like to
know whether she can get him to move out, even though it is his house as that
would ‘serve him right’.
Advise Mary (50 marks)
2(a) Bobby and Peter have been going out for 3 months. They live in Dungannon. They have decided that they want to get married right away. Bobby is 20 years old and Peter is 17 years old. A friend who knows about these things has told them that they can’t have a same sex marriage in Northern Ireland. They are disappointed about this as they had intended to have their friend Malcolm who has a great speaking voice (although no formal qualifications) marry them. They intended to get married in their neighbours designer gazebo. They want to get married next week as they are madly in love. They are very private people so they don’t want anyone else at their ceremony just the two of them and Malcolm.
Advice Bobby and Peter. (50 marks)
2(b) Wendy married Alexander nearly 3 years ago and is now having second thoughts. She wants to urgently get out of this marriage. At the time of the marriage she says she felt confused and didn’t really grasp what was going on. Wendy has from childhood suffered with anxiety and depression. In addition Alexander comes from a wealthy family. Wendy’s parents told her this marriage was a brilliant idea and that she must go ahead with it. When she told them she was a bit confused about the whole thing they told her to be quiet and get on with it and warned her that if she even thought about backing out of the wedding “she would regret it”. Since marrying Wendy has been sending regular payments from her and Alexander’s joint bank account to her family at their request and without Alexander knowing.
Advice Wendy (50 marks)
3. John has been married to Ruby for 10 years. They have 1 daughter Stella aged 4. Their marriage has been troubled from the start. Shortly after they got married Ruby displayed signs of a bad temper and started to drink heavily. John would confront Ruby about her behaviour which would result in violent arguments. After a very bad row John decided he had had enough and he left the matrimonial home and went to stay with his parents. He stayed there for 3 months before reconciling with Ruby and moving back into the matrimonial home. He now wants to divorce Ruby. The couple own the matrimonial home jointly – it is in both of their names. There is a mortgage on that property and John thinks there would be about £100,000.00 of positive equity in the property. John works as a Surveyor and has a good work pension. He also owns a number of rental properties in his own name which he had before he got married. Ruby has never had anything to do with those properties. John has also just inherited £50,000.00 from his late Aunt’s estate. Ruby has never worked and has always stayed at home looking after their daughter. John now wants to commence divorce proceedings and if possible he would like to give Ruby half of the equity in the matrimonial home only. He does not believe she is entitled to anything else.
Advise John (100 marks)
4(a) Roy is a an in-experienced social worker with Northbrook Health and Social Service Trust. He has received a number of complaints to Gateway concerning a local family Rebecca White and her children Josh (aged 11) and Eleanor (aged 2). The children’s father is a local man called Stanley Price who has never been involved in the children’s lives. Neighbours have advised that Josh does not attend school on many occasions and is seen looking dirty and unkempt sitting out in the garden my himself at all hours of the day and night. In addition, some neighbours have reported seeing Rebecca out with the younger child walking along the road with the child in her stroller when Rebecca appeared drunk and staggering. When some neighbours intervened to speak to her to see if she was alright they report that Rebecca swore at them and they could detect the smell of intoxicating liquor from her breath.
Advise Roy regarding the legal options available to him as a social worker in these circumstances. (50 marks)
4(b) Paddy is the father of Luke (13), James (11) and John (9), all of whom live with their mother, Maureen. At present Paddy has no face-to-face contact with any of his children following an incident in which he allegedly assaulted Maureen in front of the children. (He only has limited telephone contact.) Since then she has denied him access to them. Paddy wishes to have as much contact with them as possible, and in particular he would like an overnight contact with the older two boys.
In respect of John, he wishes to be informed of his progress in school, something which Maureen will not agree to because, she says, he is simply being manipulative. There is another disputed issue between Paddy and Maureen, namely that Paddy wants John to have corrective surgery on his ears which Paddy feels ‘stick out’, whereas Maureen thinks the risks of something going wrong are too great and that the advantage to be gained by the operation is limited. Paddy also expresses concern about Maureen’s new live-in lover, Sammy, whom he claims has physically abused his children. Paddy says that John texted him about an incident in which Sammy ‘slapped him across the head and put him outside for hours.’ Paddy feels that Maureen is deliberately blocking contact with the children against their wishes.
Advise Paddy (50 marks)
5(a) Zabine wishes to return home to Poland from Northern Ireland with her 5 year old daughter having spent the last 6 years here. Her former partner and the father of her child Jake (also Polish) is opposed to this and considers that he will never see his daughter again. Jake is happy in Northern Ireland, has a good job and wishes to stay. Zabine says that she wishes to marry her new boyfriend – whom she met in Belfast and who is Polish and wants to return to Poland to her extended family to ‘start again’ as she says she is fed up with Northern Ireland.
Advice Zabine (50 marks)
5(b) Barney has been living with Julie for four years. They live in a home which they jointly own. Julie lost her job 1 months ago and since then she has been treating Barney terribly. She shouts at him all the time, throws things at him and on one occasion she slapped him across the face. Julie blames Barney for her losing her job saying that he didn’t support her enough. Julie’s father has started to text Barney with verbal abuse and has turned up at his work 7 times in the last week making a scene. Barney wants to get Julie’s behaviour to stop and wants to get her out of the home they share. He also wonders if there is anything which he can do about Julie’s father’s behaviour.
Advise Barney (50 marks)
6. Susan married Thomas within 3 months of meeting him following a world wind romance. Susan and Thomas are both 22 years old. Susan married Thomas in secret without telling any of her family. It was all very romantic. Her family were furious when Susan told them about the wedding because they normally help her with all her big decision making as sometimes she doesn’t think clearly. Susan and Thomas realised immediately that their marriage was a bad idea when they had a huge row after the wedding. The marriage has never been consummated. Nevertheless the pair get on very well. They moved in together after the wedding and have been living together as ‘good friends’ since. In fact the pair just recently found out that they might actually be distant relatives. They have lived together for 4 years. They even bought a house together in joint names and have a dog called Pooch. Susan didn’t disclose that she had actually married someone else in another world wind romance 12 months before this wedding. She is in the process ‘of getting all that sorted out’ with her Solicitor at the moment. Susan has heard that she might be able to get a Decree of Nullity and seeks your advice on whether or not that is correct in her circumstances.
Advise Susan. (100 marks)
