Case Summaries

In proceedings concerning a 20-year-old woman (AC) who had undergone an Islamic marriage ceremony (Nikah) in Pakistan, the immediate issue for the court was whether AC had the capacity to consent to participating in a capacity assessment requested by the defendants in related criminal proceedings for forced marriage under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 s.121.

Mrs Justice Henke dealt with two applications made by the Local Authority – (1) an application for a public law order; and (2) and an application for a Deprivation of Liberty Order.

Private law proceedings concerning whether the child should continue to live in England or relocate permanently to Saint Lucia with his mother. The court ordered that he should continue to live in the UK with his father.

Application by F, who has a pending asylum claim, for a CAO & PSO to prevent M from relocating the children to Egypt. Permission given for M to relocate.

Simon Colton KC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, dismissed the Mother’s application for the return of her five sons from Kenya, holding that the court did not have jurisdiction. The court found that the children were not wrongfully retained and had become habitually resident in Kenya, notwithstanding its findings that the Father had subjected the Mother to serious coercive and controlling behaviour.

The father “F” applied under the Child Abduction and Custody Act 1984 pursuant to the 1980 Hague Convention for the return of C, aged 6, to Ukraine. C’s mother “M” sought to defend F’s application based on Article 13(b), having accepted that the criteria under Article 3 were met. 

This was the mother’s (“M’s”) application for the summary return of her daughter, MG, to Norway under the 1980 Hague Convention.

Recorder Nahal-Macdonald gave an ex tempore judgment at the conclusion of a final hearing where the husband had failed to make disclosure or attend the hearing. Inferences were made regarding his assets and he was ordered to pay a lump sum of £110,000.

This was a case management decision in care proceedings concerning a newborn child. HHJ Parker refused the parents’ application for a further independent social work parenting assessment, finding that extensive previous assessments already provided an abundance of evidence and that a further assessment was neither necessary nor proportionate.

Held that the unmarried same-sex partner of a mother had not acquired parental responsibility for the child by virtue of being registered as the child’s ‘parent’.

Appeal by the wife against orders striking out two sets of claims concerning disputed third-party property interests and removing one third party from the proceedings. Appeal allowed. MacDonald J held that FPR 4.4 does not confer a summary judgment jurisdiction and that the court cannot use its wider case-management powers under FPR 4.1 to achieve the same result.

HHJ Vincent granted the husband permission to pursue financial relief under Part III of the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984 following a Russian divorce and refused the wife’s application to stay the English proceedings pending proceedings in Cyprus. The parties’ substantial English connections, particularly the former matrimonial home and their child’s education, provided a solid basis for the application to proceed.

The views of a child can be taken into account in assessing whether the ‘grave risk’ defence under Article 13(b) of the Hague Convention is made out.

HHJ Stephen Smith dismissed an application by the mother of SB, a girl now in her teenage years, to set aside historical findings of parental alienation.

Application by the father for the summary return of child to Country A opposed by the mother, relying on Article 13(b) of the Hague Convention. Defence made out and application refused.

Her Honour Judge Pemberton published a judgment concerning an application by South Yorkshire Police for a Female Genital Mutilation Protection Order concerning the parents of two young daughters, F1 and F2.