Hong Kong Ordinances

MATRIMONIAL PROCEEDINGS AND PROPERTY ORDINANCE - SECT 11

Variation, discharge, etc. of orders for financial provision

Caution: This is a past version. See the current version here.

(1) Where the court has made an order to which this section applies, then,
subject to the provisions of this section, the court shall have power to vary
or discharge the order or to suspend any provision thereof temporarily and to
revive the operation of any provision so suspended.

(2) This section applies to the following orders, that is to say-

   (a)  any order under section 3;

   (b)  any order made by virtue of section 4(1)(a) or (b) or 4 (2) (b) ;

   (c)  any order made by virtue of section 5(2)(a) or (b) or 5(4);

   (d)  any order made by virtue of section 6(b), (c) or (d) on or after
        granting a decree of judicial separation; and

   (e)  any order made by virtue of section 8(5), 8(6)(a), (b), (d) or (e) or
        8(7)(b).

(3) The powers exercisable by the court under this section in relation to an
order shall be exercisable also in relation to any instrument executed in
pursuance of the order.

(4) The court shall not exercise the powers conferred by this section in
relation to any order made by virtue of section 6(b), (c) or (d) on or after
granting a decree of judicial separation except on an application made in
proceedings-

   (a)  for the rescission of that decree, or

   (b)  for the dissolution of the marriage of the parties to the proceedings
        in which that decree was made.

(5) No such order as is mentioned in section 6 shall be made on an application
for the variation of an order made by virtue of section  4 (1)(a) or (b) or
section 5(2)(a) or (b), and no order for the payment of a lump sum shall be
made on an application for the variation of an order made by virtue of
section 4(1)(a) or (b) or of section 8(6)(a) or (b).

(6) Where the person liable to make payments under an order made by virtue of
section 4(1)(b), section 5(2)(b) or section 8(6)(b) or (e) has died, an
application under this section relating to that order may be made by the
person entitled to payments under the order or by the personal representatives
of the deceased person, but no such application shall, except with the
permission of the court, be made after the end of the period of six months
from the date on which representation in regard to the estate of that person
is first taken out.

(7) In exercising the powers conferred by this section the court shall have
regard to all the circumstances of the case, including any change in any of
the matters to which the court was required to have regard when making the
order to which the application relates and, where the party against whom that
order was made has died, the changed circumstances resulting from his or her
death.

(8) The personal representatives of a deceased person against whom any such
order as is referred to in subsection (6) was made shall not be liable for
having distributed any part of the estate of the deceased after the expiration
of the period of six months referred to in that subsection on the ground that
they ought to have taken into account the possibility that the court might
permit an application under this section to be made after that period by the
person entitled to payments under the order; but this subsection shall not
prejudice any power to recover any part of the estate so distributed arising
by virtue of the making of an order in pursuance of this section.

(9) In considering for the purposes of subsection (6) the question when
representation was first taken out, a grant limited to trust property shall be
left out of account and a grant limited to real estate or to personal estate
shall be left out of account unless a grant limited to the remainder of the
estate has previously been made or is made at the same time. [cf. 1970 c.45
s.9 U.K.]