Case No. LS20P01640

93.Mr Thorpe has argued that a mechanism should be built into the order to provide for automatic capitalisation of the sums which I have awarded for (a) ongoing support for Zoe (b) her education, and (c) nanny provision. 94.He refers, with some justification, to the fact that the father has failed to make the final instalment payment of £175,000 towards the mother’s legal costs, and has further caused anxiety by failing to engage in this final hearing. Judges in this jurisdiction have not been slow to make orders which will have the effect of bringing to account the defaulting father – see for instance the recent decision of Moor J in Stacey v McNicholas [2022] EWHC 278 (Fam) (a series of monthly lump sums were ordered to cover rent for the property occupied by mother and child in a CMS case where the respondent had appealed the housing order and there was therefore delay), and I should make it clear that in principle I will have little hesitation in following suit.95.However, I decline to incorporate this mechanism at this stage for a number of reasons:i)I consider that I should give the father the opportunity to comply with my order, before imposing automatic triggers in the event that he defaults;ii)The father has had very limited notice that the mother proposes capitalisation as part of her claim; it was raised for the first time in the mother’s twelfth statement dated 13 February 2023; I am not sure that he has seen this document;iii)I am presently loath to capitalise the periodical payments in favour of Zoe under the HECSA unless I absolutely need to do so, given the possibility that this part of the order may well need to be reviewed/varied over time. I bring to mind what Mostyn J said in AZ v FM [2021] EWFC 2 at [58], namely that a capitalised order for child maintenance would be a “rare bird”, and that “[i]n the overwhelming majority of cases, … the risks and uncertainties inherent in capitalisation will lead the court, where it has jurisdiction, to make, or continue, a traditional order for periodic payments” and what Moor J said in Hussein v Maktoum (citation above) at [48] (“the normal convention [is] that a court does not capitalise periodical payments for children”); iv)There has been no detailed thought yet given to how any capitalised sums would be administered, and at what cost. Mr Thorpe suggested (following the approach taken by Moor J in Hussein v Maktoum) that independent accountants could be “custodians” of the fund (thereby avoiding the tax implications of setting up a trust); but, as I say, this was floated as no more than a suggestion;v)The father may wish to make representations about the method of calculation of a capitalised sum.