December 2025 – Court of Appeal of Patras: Reduction of Child Maintenance Obligations and Order for the Mother to Reimburse €11,500 to the Father Following Restoration Of The Status Quo Ante (Article 914 GCCP)

Judgment No. 439/2025 of the Single-Member Court of Appeal of Patras was issued, whereby our client’s appeal was upheld and the first-instance judgment of the Single-Member Court of First Instance of Patras was reversed. Under the first-instance decision, our client, the father of two minor sons, had been ordered to pay child maintenance to the mother, acting in her capacity as the parent exercising parental custody on behalf of the minor children, in the total amount of €1,300 per month for both children. More specifically, following acceptance of the relevant ground of appeal raised by our client pursuant to Article 527 of the Greek Code of Civil Procedure, the Court took into account the mother’s contribution to the maintenance of the minor children. As a result, the father’s maintenance obligation was reduced to €900 per month for both children, aged 12 and 10 respectively. 

Furthermore, through the notice of appeal, our client submitted a request for restoration of the status quo ante pursuant to Article 914 of the Greek Code of Civil Procedure. In particular, he sought an order requiring the respondent mother to reimburse the difference arising between: (a) the amount already paid by him as child maintenance during the disputed two-year period pursuant to the first-instance judgment, which had been declared provisionally enforceable, and (b) the lower amount ultimately determined by the appellate court as his maintenance contribution for the same period. The Single-Member Court of Appeal of Patras held that the above request was both legally admissible and substantively well-founded. The Court found that execution of the first-instance judgment had been duly established, namely through our client’s voluntary compliance with the provisionally enforceable judgment under the threat of enforcement proceedings, as evidenced by the bank payment records produced before the Court. Consequently, the Court ordered the respondent mother to pay our client the amount of €11,500, representing the difference between the sums paid by our client during the relevant two-year period pursuant to the first-instance judgment subsequently reversed on appeal and the amount ultimately adjudicated by the appellate court. The amount was awarded together with statutory interest accruing from service of the judgment. In addition, the Court rejected as legally irrelevant the respondent mother’s argument that the excess amount paid pursuant to the first-instance judgment had already been consumed for the maintenance needs of the children, holding that such contention had no legal bearing on the outcome of the restoration claim.