Sargood and Sargood (Child support)

The case of *Sargood and Sargood* concerned a dispute over child support payments. The applicant, the liable parent, sought to have certain payments credited towards his child support assessment. These payments were made from a joint bank account held by both parents to third parties. The respondent, the other parent, opposed the crediting of these payments. The matter came before the court for review of a decision made by the Registrar.

The central legal issue before the court was whether payments made by the liable parent to third parties from a joint account, where the liable parent did not have regular care of the child and a property settlement was yet to be finalised, should be credited against his child support liability. This required the court to consider the principles governing non-agency payments and the intention of the parties in making such payments.

The court affirmed the Registrar's decision to refuse to credit the non-agency payments. The Senior Member found that for a non-agency payment to be credited, there must be a mutual intention between both parents that the payment would be in satisfaction of the child support liability. In this instance, the court determined that there was no evidence of such mutual intention. The payments were made from a joint account, the liable parent did not have regular care of the child, and the property settlement was not finalised, all of which indicated a lack of clear intent that these third-party payments were specifically for child support. The court applied the principle that the onus is on the liable parent to demonstrate that the payments were made with the requisite mutual intention.