Child maintenance: the ‘third party’ boyfriend removed from the divorce proceedings
The case had been fabricated after a well-known television journalist had chanced upon the fact that he was the subject of a financial investigation without his knowledge
by Regulations and Taxation Editorial Team
The judge in Como, Agostino Abate, has ordered the removal from the court file of the financial details of the mother’s new partner in relation to the child maintenance obligations of the disputing spouses. The case (see Il Sole 24 Ore of 16 November 2024) had come to light after the third party – a well-known television journalist – had learnt, entirely by chance, that he had been subject to a financial investigation without his knowledge, as part of the divorce proceedings, by order of Judge Nicoletta Sommazzi. After attempting – in vain – to obtain a ruling from the Data Protection Authority, the man requested to intervene in the ongoing proceedings to have the unlawful intrusion into his financial and family affairs declared (in relation to a joint inheritance with his siblings, which had also become the subject of the proceedings between the parties).
In the grounds for his ruling, Judge Abate acknowledges the objective breach of the privacy of the boyfriend (who is entirely unconnected to the proceedings, even in factual terms) and argues that ‘the data obtained could have been obtained by other means’. In essence, the judge writes, ‘the facts stated at the hearing, and not contested, refute the existence of the factual grounds that might have led to the involvement of the third party in the assessment of assets for the purposes of decisions relating to maintenance obligations which are the subject of this case’.
