Facts
X. and Mrs. X. divorced in 2001. The divorce judgment set the maintenance contribution for the two children at 500 CHF per child until the age of 18, or beyond in case of studies. In 2006, X. filed an action to modify the divorce judgment. The court of first instance eliminated the contribution in favor of the ex-spouse and reduced the contribution for the children to 500 CHF per child. X. appealed this decision to the Federal Tribunal.Considerations
The Federal Tribunal upheld the appeal. It considered that, although the improvement in the resources of the creditor parent should in principle benefit the children, the maintenance burden must remain balanced for each of the persons concerned and not become excessively heavy for the debtor parent who would have a modest financial situation. In this case, the disproportion between the spouses' incomes has further increased since the divorce, with the appellant seeing his resources decrease considerably while those of his ex-wife have further improved.…