Birdnesting: cooperation and financial feasibility
The Supreme Court rejected parents alternating in one home because agreement and sufficient resources were lacking. The merits of shared custody did not resolve those problems.
Selected Spanish case law
Explore 40 judgments by topic or search by concept, number or year. This is a selection of decisions from different years, including 2026, rather than a complete database. Each note identifies its official source and explains the decision’s limits.
40 judgments shown
Closure of criminal proceedings does not compel shared custody
The Supreme Court upheld maternal custody because the challenged judgment gave specific reasons against shared custody. Closure of the gender-based violence proceedings did not make shared custody compulsory.
When maintenance starts after custody changes
When shared custody changed to maternal custody, the Supreme Court rejected backdating maintenance to the application where support had continued through alternating residence until the appeal decision.
Contact subject to judicial monitoring
The court maintained contact with safeguards and judicial monitoring, considering current circumstances and uncertainty over the old criminal proceedings.
Inheritance and deposits: proving the source of funds
When liquidating community property before distributing an estate, the court upheld the community character of deposits whose alleged separate origin was unproved.
Alternating care and an adult child with a disability
The court upheld changed living arrangements for an adult son by considering his current needs, wishes and both parents’ abilities. It also required notification to the court responsible for reviewing the former capacity measures.
Family conflict requires examining responsibility
The court maintained support: the daughter was not solely responsible for the damaged relationship and hostility was reciprocal. It also stressed that cassation does not permit unrestricted rewriting of established facts.
Textbooks and tuition versus extracurricular activities
The Supreme Court corrected the classification of textbooks and tuition as extraordinary expenses because they form part of ordinary education. It maintained the treatment of the extracurricular activities examined because the asserted foreseeability had not been established.
Assessing imbalance through family dedication
The court reiterated that maintenance does not equalise wealth or salaries. It found an imbalance linked to years of family care, no independent income and limited opportunities to earn resources.
Time limits on the family home require justification
The court set aside a two-year limit because no circumstances justified departing from protection of the minor children’s housing. The judgment addresses the family home and genuinely available alternatives.
Spousal maintenance: an uncertain improvement is insufficient
The Supreme Court rejected ending maintenance upon property liquidation without a sufficiently supported forecast that the imbalance would disappear. Age, lack of qualifications and long family dedication mattered.
Contact and violence: child protection and reasoned decisions
The Constitutional Court upheld the rules governing contact where criminal proceedings or substantiated indications of violence exist. Their application requires judicial assessment and any statutory exception must be reasoned by reference to the child’s interests.
Estrangement is not an independent ground for disinheritance
The Supreme Court upheld invalidation of a clause because abuse or psychological harm attributable to the granddaughters had not been proved. Estrangement could not create a new ground for removing their reserved share.
Personal-injury compensation invested in community assets
The court applied the reimbursement right to separate personal-injury compensation used to acquire community assets. Absence of an express reservation did not remove the statutory credit.
Habitual abuse is assessed as a context of domination
The approach recorded in the official study describes habitual violence as a climate of subjugation built through physical, verbal, psychological or sexual violence. Looking at the whole context helps assess continuing harm within the family.
Testimonial exemption after acting as a private prosecutor
The full court held that someone who had acted as a private prosecutor did not regain the testimonial exemption by later withdrawing. This changed the previous approach for the situation examined.
Nonpayment of a court-ordered mortgage obligation
The Supreme Court included mortgage instalments imposed as an economic obligation in its article 227 Criminal Code analysis.
A missed call can breach a no-contact order
The court treated an unanswered call as completed communication where its origin could be identified. A conversation was unnecessary.
Contributing separate funds does not necessarily mean gifting them
The full court distinguished making an asset community property from waiving reimbursement of separate funds. If their origin is proved, the contributor may have a credit despite making no express reservation at purchase.
Proven psychological abuse as a disinheritance ground
The court upheld disinheritance where unjustified contempt and abandonment attributable to the children amounted to psychological abuse under its doctrine. The assessment could not be confined to whether insults occurred.
Hearing children while protecting privacy and procedural fairness
The Constitutional Court upheld the recording rules for a child’s interview in non-contentious proceedings. Privacy must be reconciled with disclosure of relevant procedural information and the opportunity to respond.
Gender aggravation: no specific purpose to humiliate is required
The court rejected a requirement for a specific purpose of humiliation for gender aggravation in the case examined. The proven conduct and discriminatory context mattered rather than the alternative explanation of a sexual motive.
Estrangement and maintenance for adult children
The Supreme Court required rigorous proof that the children were principally and significantly responsible for the breakdown in contact. As that was not established, it rejected termination of maintenance on that ground.
Measuring distance under a restraining order
The court held that the order’s specified measurement method applies; absent one, distance is measured in a straight line.
Partner assault and proof of domination intent
For the article 153 offence examined, the full court required no additional intention of domination beyond the offence’s elements.
A new partner and occupation of the family home
The Supreme Court upheld termination of occupation upon liquidation of community property, finding that stable cohabitation with a new partner had changed the home’s family character. Alternatives for meeting the children’s housing needs also mattered.
Victim testimony requires reasoned evaluation
The court highlighted the position of a person who directly suffered an assault when evaluating her account. That perspective helps understand the narrative without making testimony automatic proof or exempting it from scrutiny.
When time-limited spousal maintenance can be justified
The court upheld a seven-year term because the appeal court had prudently explained the prospect of overcoming the imbalance, considering age, resources and employment possibilities. The time limit depended on that assessment rather than a preset duration.
Disability and testamentary capacity
The court rejected automatically extending restrictions on property transactions to the personal act of making a will. Actual ability when executing the will and the safeguards then applicable were decisive.
Precarious family-business work and compensation
The full court accepted that precarious work in a family business may be treated like domestic work for compensation under article 1438 of the Civil Code.
Shared custody requires a parent’s request
A shared-custody arrangement was overturned because neither parent maintained a request for it. The child’s best interests do not by themselves remove the legal conditions for making that order.
International child return and current circumstances
The Constitutional Court set aside a return decision because it did not sufficiently assess the girl’s current integration after procedural delay. It required reasons effectively examining the circumstances relevant to her interests.
Premarital cohabitation can matter when assessing imbalance
The Supreme Court allowed consideration of uninterrupted cohabitation preceding marriage when deciding spousal maintenance arising from the marital breakdown.
Predictable school-start expenses are ordinary expenses
The doctrine recorded in the official summary distinguishes predictable, recurring educational expenses from unforeseen extraordinary ones. School-start expenses must be considered when calculating monthly maintenance contributions.
Grandparent contact requires its own reasoned arrangement
The Constitutional Court set aside contact arrangements that generically transferred a non-resident parent’s schedule to grandparents. Recognising the relationship did not remove the need to explain an appropriate scope and structure for those children.
Shared custody: the child’s best interests come first
The Supreme Court brought together the factors for assessing shared custody: previous care, parenting abilities, the child’s needs, reports and mutual respect. It treated this as a normal, desirable arrangement where feasible and beneficial.
A prosecutor’s report cannot operate as a custody veto
The Constitutional Court struck down the requirement for a favourable prosecutor’s report before shared custody could be ordered without parental agreement. The court must decide the arrangement and explain its reasons.
Domestic-work compensation does not require enriching the other spouse
The Supreme Court held that domestic-work compensation under separation of property does not require proof that the other spouse’s wealth increased. Its domestic-dedication doctrine must be read with later qualifications, including judgment 252/2017.
Differentiated criminal protection against gender-based violence
The Constitutional Court rejected the challenge to article 153.1 of the Criminal Code and found the differentiation examined compatible with equality. Its justification concerned the significance and harmfulness of that violence.
Refusal to undergo a paternity test
The Constitutional Court protected effective judicial relief in parentage proceedings: an unjustified refusal to cooperate with biological testing had to be assessed alongside other evidence. The daughter could not simply bear the evidential difficulty created by that refusal.