This Supreme Court pronouncement states that the wife is to receive three-quarters of joint assets, because those joint assets were yielded by the wife, and the husband failed to provide financial support to his wife and child for 11 years.
The parties were married on 8 April 1995 and had two children. Since 1998, the parties had quarrelled. On 9 November 2008, the plaintiff, the parties' daughter, and their maid left the matrimonial home, after being driven out by the defendant. The parties had remained separated since.
In seeking a divorce, the plaintiff also sought from the defendant IDR 2 million per month in back-dated child maintenance, as the defendant had failed to provide the plaintiff and their children with any financial support since 1997 (132 months). Furthermore, the plaintiff sought custody of the parties' children, and IDR 5.5 million per month in child support going forward.
The defendant unsuccessfully challenged the Yogyakarta High Religious Court's decision (34/Pdt.G/2009/PTA), the Supreme Court, for all intents and purposes, reaffirming the Yogyakarta Court's decision. The Yogyakarta Court, however, had not acceded to the amounts in financial support sought by the plaintiff, ordering the defendant to pay to the plaintiff IDR 750,000 per month in child maintenance, until that child reached 21 years of age.