Judgment was handed down by Mr Justice MacDonald on 29th July 2022. This case concerned a 12 year old girl who was born and lived in France until her mother’s death in 2017 when she moved to Tunisia in the care of her paternal grandmother.
Application by NHS Trust for declaration that brain stem death had occurred in a child such that it would be lawful to cease ventilation and medication adjourned after the hospital rescinded its clinical ascertainment of death.
The Court was concerned with an appeal by the mother of a two-year-old boy, C, against findings made in care proceedings that she inflicted injuries on him.
Findings of sexual abuse were made against the intervenor in care proceedings that he had sexually abused his 5 year old step-daughter. He appealed the findings.
An appeal concerning an injunction made in the High Court prohibiting any person serving with the Metropolitan Police (‘MPS’) from interviewing two teenage children (‘A’ and ‘B’) without the ‘express order’ of the judge save for speaking to them ‘in order to determine whether they are at a real and immediate risk of being subjected to harm or ill-treatment and for the purpose of considering whether any immediate police or statutory powers should be exercised to avoid that risk’ [1]. Appeal allowed.
Theis J gives permission for a widower to use the last remaining embryo made with his late wife’s egg, where she had not given written consent to posthumous use before her death
An application to commit a solicitor for breach of a location order is struck out, with important observations on the procedural requirements for enforcing an order directed to a LLP and is served (with permission) by email.
Arbuthnot J’s decision in respect of a 12 year old boy is successfully appealed by his parents and to be remitted for a fresh hearing before Hayden J and a new children’s guardian to be appointed.
This case involved financial remedies proceedings between H, aged 47 and W, aged 43, who had 2 children, 3 and 9 years old.
The Court of Appeal granted the mother’s appeal against a placement order.
MacDonald J grants a short extension to a DOLS order in circumstances where there continues to be an acute lack of appropriate resources for children requiring therapeutic care within a restrictive environment.
A High Court decision that the court in England & Wales had no continuing jurisdiction with respect to a child who had been born and was living in Antigua, simply because a limited contact direction had been made by the English court when she had been covertly brough to England by her father for a total of 10 days.
Appeal against placement order allowed following a deficient analysis at first instance.
Successful appeal of a third party costs order made by HHJ Tolson QC against a local authority in ongoing private law proceedings.
The Court of Appeal allowed an appeal against the order of Mostyn J reported at [2021] EWFC 23, [2022] 1 FLR 513 refusing the wife’s application for maintenance under s27 Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 and substituted an order for the husband to pay £10000 p.a. until further order or the wife’s remarriage. The wife’s application for a lump sum was adjourned indefinitely.
This case concerns the difficulties caused in family proceedings arising from the delay in completion of Post-Mortem reports following the death of a child. Such cases reach the family court where there is a surviving sibling, and where uncertainty about the cause of death might give cause for concern that the surviving child is also at risk of harm.
