Case No. BV18D07667

as may be so specified. Why the legislators added the words “or sums” is not known; I have not been taken to Hansard. It would seem likely that it was to enable separate sums to be payable on separate occasions for separate purposes, in contrast to a single sum which, in order to soften the blow to the payer, is permitted to be paid in instalments.74.In Coleman v Coleman [1973] Fam 10, Sir George Baker P considered these provisions. The husband had been ordered to pay the wife a lump sum of £2,000. In addition, there was a form of property adjustment order in the wife’s favour in respect of a sum of money of £5,500. The wife later applied for a further lump sum. Her application was dismissed for want of jurisdiction to make such an award on a subsequent occasion.75.Sir George pointed out at page 16 that the words “or sums” had been added to clause 2(2)(c) of the Bill during its passage through Parliament, and he quoted paragraph 89 of the report which I have set out above. At pages 19-20 he stated:“I think that the purpose of the words "or sums" must be to enable the court to provide for more than one lump sum payment in one order; indeed, that is what has been done in the present case, for there is an order for the payment of £2,000 and for the payment of £5,500, the latter being expressed by the registrar in his judgment to be "so that she may, should she so wish, acquire a capital interest in her home." Many examples suggest themselves - an order for a lump sum to cover expenses, as in section 2(2)(a) of the Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act 1970, or for the purchase of the house or for furnishing the house, or in lieu of maintenance, or it may be that one lump sum is to be payable immediately and another by instalments. Then there are wives like the present wife who must have money at once for at least the deposit on a new home for herself and the children, but the final amount she should receive cannot be fairly decided until the selling price of the former home (owned by the husband) is known. At the present day that may be in a bracket of many thousands of pounds. This problem can be resolved within the section by requiring the husband to give her an immediate lump sum for the deposit and adjourning the question of the further lump sum (if any) until after the sale of the former home…Counsel for the wife submits that section 2(2) of the Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act 1970 supports the view that the insertion of the words "or sums" in section 2(1)(c) must be for the purpose of enabling the court to make a plurality of orders. Were it otherwise, section 2(2)(b), which enables an order to provide for the payment of a lump sum by instalments of such amount as may be specified in the order. would, he submits, be quite unnecessary.