Case Summaries

Court of Appeal grants permission to appeal in respect of s 91(14) order made on very short notice to a litigant in person. Permission to appeal section 8 child arrangements order refused

Wardship proceedings concerning children taken to Somalia.

Appeal following findings of sexual abuse made within care proceedings where there had been significant deficiencies in the investigation into the allegations. Appeal allowed.

No appearance of bias to the notional fair-minded and informed observer in a probate / I(PFD)A 1975 judgment in which senior counsel sitting as a deputy judge had informed the parties at the outset that she was leading one of the advocates in other unrelated long-running litigation.

Appeal by the mother and her older child against the court’s refusal to allow the mother to remove her children to the USA.

Appeal by husband in long-running financial remedies proceedings, where litigation was being pursued in Malaysia and in this jurisdiction, involving substantial assets and concerning arguments relating to issue estoppel, abuse of process and stay of proceedings. Appeal dismissed.

Father’s appeal against order permitting the wife to move with their daughter from London to Cumbria. (Guidance given by Court of Appeal about principles to be applied in relocation cases).

Final hearing of cross-applications by the parents for a child arrangements order that D live with them and of the mother’s application for permission to remove D permanently from the jurisdiction to Israel.

Court of Appeal decision in private law proceedings regarding mother’s application for contact with child in the USA where the mother lived. Application at first instance dismissed; appeal allowed. Consideration of legal protection offered by the mother.

Appeal of Russell J’s decision (made on rehearing) to order the return of a child who had been placed with prospective adopters to the care of her father.

The Upper Tribunal determines that repayments of a director’s loan can constitute income for the purposes of an application to vary child support maintenance on the grounds of diverted income.

Judgment setting out guidance, approved by the President of the Family Division, in respect to applications for parental orders under the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act 2008 section 54.

Application by NHS Trust for declarations relating to life sustaining treatment of a patient.

Application under the Inherent Jurisdiction of the High Court in which the court found that a 25-year old man, who had been married in Pakistan, lacked capacity to consent to sexual relations/marriage and exercised its discretion to make a declaration of non-recognition in relation to the marriage.

Appeal against placement orders involving issues of inter-sibling contact and cultural heritage needs.

The High Court, considering the Hague Convention 1980 and BIIR, found no substance to three Article 13 (b) ‘defences’ or exceptions to an order for summary return of an 8-year-old child to his country of habitual residence, in circumstances involving likely separation of siblings.