JUDGE IN SPAIN PARTITIONS HOME OF FEUDING COUPLE

PARIS — The economic crisis in Spain has had the unintentional consequence of forcing warring couples who cannot afford divorces to remain together. Now, a judge in Seville has ordered a divorcing couple to split their 2,700-square-foot apartment down the middle.

The property belongs to the husband’s parents, but the judge ordered the man to bisect it to create two independent abodes, citing economic considerations and the well-being of the couple’s two daughters, ages 6 and 7, according to the written ruling released by the court this month.

Josep Maria Torres, a family law expert at Roca & Junyent, a leading law firm in Barcelona, said Friday that the ruling was highly unusual. “It is an extraordinary decision that could encourage other judges to seek similarly extreme solutions,” he said. “Spain’s economic crisis has changed everything.”

The potential for awkward encounters between the couple in the stairwell presented “the lesser of two evils in view of the economic situation presented by both parties,” the judge wrote, referring to the couple’s complaint that the crisis had decimated their earnings. The couple were not available for comment.

In her ruling, the judge reasoned that since the husband’s parents had not taken any action against their daughter-in-law, it was evident that they did not want to expel her and her two daughters from the apartment. She said that the husband had his offices downstairs from the apartment and that the proximity would benefit his daughters.

The ruling requires the husband to pay for the division. But it does not specify whether he must erect walls or can simply put tape across the floor, a penny-pinching solution that some splitting couples have tried. But this couple appeared to have means.

When the judge ordered the family to cut down on expenses, she noted that horse-riding and sailing lessons for the girls were unnecessary extravagances.

The ruling noted that until now the husband had insisted that his wife stay at home, but the financial crisis could now compel her to find a job. The ruling did not specify whether she should get rid of the maid.

Source; NewYorkTimes.