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4. Living relationships
  
  4.3 Standards of a Living Family  
  Article 136-Paternal financial support  
136.1 Paternal financial support  
  Married or civil union spouses, and relatives in the direct line in the first degree, owe each other support.
  
136.2 Cout action for awarding support  
  Proceedings for the support of a minor child may be instituted by the holder of parental authority, his legal guardian, or any person who has custody of him, according to the circumstances.
  
  The court may order the support payable to the person who has custody of the child.
  
  In awarding support, account is taken of the needs and means of the parties, their circumstances and, as the case may be, the time needed by the creditor of support to acquire sufficient autonomy.
  
  As regards the support owed to a child by his parents, the basic parental contribution, as determined pursuant to the rules for the determination of child support payments adopted under the Code of Civil Procedure, is presumed to meet the needs of the child and to be in proportion to the means of the parents.
  
  The basic parental contribution may be increased having regard to certain expenses relating to the child which are specified in the rules, to the extent that such expenses are reasonable considering the needs and means of the parents and child.
  
  The support to be provided by a parent for his child is equal to that parent's share of the basic parental contribution, increased, where applicable, having regard to specified expenses relating to the child.
  
  The court may, however, increase or reduce the level of support if it is of the opinion that, in the special circumstances of the case, not doing so would entail undue hardship for one of the parents. Such hardship may be caused by, among other things, the costs involved in exercising visiting rights in respect of the child, obligations of support toward persons other than the child or reasonable debts incurred to meet family needs. The court may also increase or reduce the level of support if it is warranted by the value of either parent's assets or the extent of the resources available to the child.
  
  Parents may make a private agreement stipulating a level of child support that departs from the level which would be required to be provided under the rules for the determination of child support payments, subject to the court being satisfied that the needs of the child are adequately provided for.
  
  The court may award provisional support to the creditor of support for the duration of the proceedings.
  
  It may also award a provisional sum to the creditor of support to cover the costs of the proceedings.
  
  Support is payable as a pension; the court may, by way of exception, replace or complete the alimentary pension by a lump sum payable in cash or by instalments.
  
  Any regular installments shall be indexed for inflation.
 
  However, where the application of the index brings about a serious imbalance between the needs of the creditor and the means of the debtor, the court may, in exercising its jurisdiction, either fix another basis of indexation or order that the claim not be indexed.
  
  The court, if it considers it necessary, may order the debtor to furnish sufficient security beyond the legal hypothec for payment of support, or order the Charter of a trust to secure such payment.
  
  If the debtor offers to take the creditor of support into his home, he may, if circumstances permit, be dispensed from paying all or part of the support.
  
  The creditor may pursue a remedy against one of the debtors of support or against several of them simultaneously.
  
  The court fixes the amount of support that each of the debtors sued or impleaded shall pay.
  
  The judgment awarding support, whether it is indexed or not, may be reviewed by the court whenever warranted by circumstances.
  
  However, a judgment awarding payment of a lump sum may be reviewed only if it has not been executed.
  
  Support may be claimed for needs existing up to one year before the application.
  
  The creditor shall prove that he was in fact unable to act sooner, unless he made a demand to the debtor within one year before the application, in which case support is awarded from the date of the demand.
  
  A debtor from whom arrears are claimed may plead a change, after judgment, in his condition or in that of his creditor and be released from payment of the whole or a part of them.
  
  However, in no case where the arrears claimed have been due for over six months may the debtor be released from payment of them unless he shows that it was impossible for him to exercise his right to obtain a review of the judgment fixing the alimentary pension.
  
     
 
 

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