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Judgment No. SC 37/18
Civil Appeal No. SC 433/16
good cause warranting variation of the maintenance in respect of herself. The court accordingly
dismissed the application both in respect of the appellant and the minor children.
[29] At the hearing of the matter before this court, counsel for the appellant accepted that there
were disputes of fact but urged this court to take a robust approach and take into account all
salient factors and the fact that the general cost of living had gone up. Counsel also accepted
that the matter could be remitted for the hearing of viva voce evidence.
[30]
Counsel for the respondent, on the other hand, submitted that, if this Court comes to the
conclusion that the court a quo was correct in finding that the application by the appellant was
an attempt to revisit the consent paper, then that would be the end of the matter and the question
whether disputes of fact exist would not arise. Secondly, he submitted that the appellant had
chosen the application procedure well aware that there were disputes of fact which disputes
may warrant the dismissal of the application for that reason. Lastly, he submitted that the
document which purports to shed new light on his assets and income was attached for the first
time in the answering affidavit and the court a quo correctly found that the appellant could not
make her case in an answering affidavit.
[31]
There is no doubt at all that there were disputes of fact which required resolution before
the court a quo could consider the question of good cause. Without resolving those disputes,
and this goes without saying, the court was handicapped in coming to a proper conclusion on
whether indeed there was good cause, as such good cause depended on the findings that the
court would make on those disputed facts.
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