Swettenham v Swettenham The registrar’s report as to the maintenance of a lunatic wife recommended that the husband should covenant to pay an annuity of stated amount during the joint lives of himself and the wife, and should secure a named sum for her benefit during her life, and that £1,500, being accumulations of the wife’s capital in the hands of her receiver, should be expended in the purchase of an annuity for her benefit.