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MATRIMONIAL CAUSES (NORTHERN IRELAND) ORDER 1978 - SECT 33

33.(1) Where the court has made an order to which this Article applies, then,
subject to the provisions of this Article, 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 Article applies to the following orders, that is to say

(a)any order for maintenance pending suit and any interim order for
maintenance;

(b)any periodical payments order;

(c)any secured periodical payments order;

(d)any order made by virtue of Article 25(3)(c) or 29(9)(b) (provision for
payment of a lump sum by instalments);

(e)any order for a settlement of property under Article 26(1)(b) or for a
variation of settlement under Article 26(1)(c) or (d), being an order made on
or after the grant of a decree of judicial separation.

(3) The powers exercisable by the court under this Article 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 Article in
relation to an order for a settlement under Article 26(1)(b) or for a
variation of settlement under Article 26(1)(c) or (d) except on an application
made in proceedings

(a)for the rescission of the decree of judicial separation by reference to
which the order was made, or

(b)for the dissolution of the marriage in question.

(5) No property adjustment order shall be made on an application for the
variation of a periodical payments or secured periodical payments order made
(whether in favour of a party to a marriage or in favour of a child of the
family) under Article 25, and no order for the payment of a lump sum shall be
made on an application for the variation of a periodical payments or secured
periodical payments order in favour of a party to a marriage (whether made
under Article 25 or under Article 29).

(6) Where the person liable to make payments under a secured periodical
payments order has died, an application under this Article 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 Article 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 a secured
periodical payments order 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 paragraph (6) on the ground that they ought to have
taken into account the possibility that the court might permit an application
under this Article to be made after that period by the person entitled to
payments under the order; but this paragraph 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 Article.

(9) In considering for the purposes of paragraph (6) the question when
representation was first taken out, a grant limited to part of the estate of
the deceased 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.

© 1978 Crown Copyright

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