The Civil Cassation Court of the Supreme Court clarified whether the court can close the alimony case due to the absence of the cause of action if the child reaches the age of majority before the decision of the court of first instance

The mere fact that the children reach the age of majority before the court of first instance makes a decision on the merits of the dispute on the amount of alimony cannot be a reason for terminating the proceedings under para. 2, part 1 of Article 255 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine due to the absence of a cause of action.

This was stated by the Civil Cassation Court of the Supreme Court in a case brought by a mother against the father of the children to increase the amount of alimony collected for the benefit of the children.

The court of first instance, whose decision was upheld by the court of appeal, closed the proceedings on the basis of para. 2, part 1, Article 255 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine for lack of a cause of action, as the children, who were born on the same day, turned 18 years old.

The Civil Cassation Court of the Supreme Court overturned the judgments and referred the case back to the court of first instance for further consideration.

At the same time, the Supreme Court pointed out that para. 2, part 1 of Article 255 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine provides that the court shall close the proceedings if there is no cause of action.

The absence of a cause of action makes it impossible to resolve the case on the merits, regardless of the validity of the claim. Examples of the absence of a cause of action include the actions of the parties or the occurrence of circumstances where there are no unresolved issues between the parties in this regard or the parties have resolved the disputed issues themselves.

When applying to the court, the plaintiff believed that the amount of alimony recovered from the defendant was too low and did not correspond to his income. This issue was not resolved by the parties during the pendency of the case at first instance (approximately one year).

At the time of initiating the lawsuit, the children were 17 years old, and when the local court made its ruling to terminate the proceedings, they had turned 18.

The logical and grammatical interpretation of the phrase "absence of a cause of action" in the context of paragraph 2 of part 1 of Article 255 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine leads to the conclusion that the cause of action must be absent, i.e. it must not exist at the time of filing a claim. If the matter in dispute existed but ceased to exist after the commencement of the proceedings due to certain circumstances, the proceedings cannot be closed on the above legal ground, since it is the absence of the matter in dispute and not its cessation that is at issue.

Thus, the mere fact that the children reached the age of majority before the court of first instance rendered a decision on the merits of the case cannot be taken as an indication that there was no dispute between the parties as to the amount of alimony to be collected in their favour at the time the plaintiff filed the action and at the time the court of first instance rendered the contested judgment, and therefore the local court did not have the procedural grounds to terminate the proceedings under paragraph 2 of part 1 of Article 255 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine.

The courts did not take into account the fact that at the time the proceedings were initiated and until the children reached the age of majority there was a dispute between the parties as to the amount of alimony, so the courts should have found out whether there were any unresolved issues between the parties in this regard, and they should have considered the merits of the claims and, if they were unfounded, dismissed them as unfounded or unproven in accordance with the requirements of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine.

The Resolution of the Supreme Court of 15 November 2023 in case No. 522/3680/22 (proceedings No. 61-12919св23) - https://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/115126798.

This and other legal positions of the Supreme Court can be found in the Database of Legal Positions of the Supreme Court - https://lpd.court.gov.ua.