Section 1461: Duty to live together and maintain

Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section

1. Supreme Court Judgment No. 3192/2549 (2006) ★ Landmark

   Breach of the cohabitation and maintenance duty under §1461 is a ground for divorce, not an automatic termination of marriage.

   Section 1461 governs the spousal relationship after marriage; a breach may ground a divorce petition under §1516(4) or (6), but it does not automatically dissolve the marriage: only a court judgment does that.

   Read the full decision (deka.in.th)

2. Supreme Court Judgment No. 5004/2538 (1995)

   Maintenance between spouses under section 1461 paragraph 2 is owed only according to each spouse ability and station, so a spouse without means owes nothing until the means arrive - here an inheritance - and the award ran only from the month it was received to the date of filing. Section 1564 paragraph 1 is different in kind: it makes no reference to ability or station, so whatever a parent circumstances the duty to maintain and educate a minor child is always owed.

   The wife sued for divorce, compensation, and maintenance for herself and their three children. Before inheriting from his mother the husband was a police corporal on 1,800 baht a month and was later dismissed following a criminal case; the security company he set up in 1987 ran on the co-defendant capital, so he was in no position to maintain her. The Supreme Court held he owed her maintenance only from February 1987, when the inheritance improved his position, and only up to the date the suit was filed. For the children it held that section 1564 paragraph 1 takes no account of ability or station, so he owed their maintenance and education from July 1986 until each reached majority, whatever his circumstances.

   Read the full decision (deka.in.th)

Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.