Case Summaries

Mostyn J dismissed a challenge to a financial provision arbitration award. He issued important guidance in an Appendix on the challenging and enforcement of such awards, with the approval of the President of the Family Division.

On an application by the Mother under the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court to consider whether the court had jurisdiction to exercise its residual parens patriae in respect of the children in circumstances where B and E were habitually resident in Sudan, the court considered it did not and the application was dismissed.

Application by the local authority to deprive a 17 year old boy (L) of his liberty under the inherent jurisdiction and thereby to extend his time at his residential unit. One of the main issues was whether it was right to deprive a child of his liberty just because there was no alternative options available to safeguard the child.
NB: Certain of the issues in this case are currently the subject of consideration by the Supreme Court, from which court judgment is awaited in the appeal from the decision of the Court of Appeal in Re T (A Child) [2018] EWCA Civ 2136.

An appeal heard by Mr Justice Cobb brought under Chapter III (Recognition and Enforcement) of Council Regulation (EC) No.2201/2003 ('BIIR') concerning whether a Polish custody order from December 2016 should be recognised and enforced. Post-Brexit, BIIR continues to apply under the transitional arrangements for cases issued on or before 31 December 2020.

The key issue in this was whether the unadjudicated claim by the wife under Part III survived the death of the husband and could be continued against his estate.

Keehan J decides the first application made by the The Child and Family Agency in Ireland (CFA) for a transfer request pursuant to Article 8 of the 1996 Convention rather than the previously used provision of Article 15 of the Brussels II Revised regulation ('BIIR').

On an application for temporary leave to remove two young children to non-Convention countries the court determined that the risks of allowing the father to remove the children for contact could not be mitigated by any protective measures.

Before the President of the Family Division, this case concerned 2 separate applications relating to 2 different children.

Mostyn J gives guidance on applications for free standing port alert orders in the Family Court.

The Court of Appeal granted the mother’s appeal against an order of Mrs Justice Judd which required the mother to return the children to the USA, having concluded that the judge had not applied the guidance set out in Re E (Children) (Abduction: Custody Appeal) [2011] UKSC 27, [2012] 1 AC 144.

McFarlane P gives permission for GMP to hold a class of data in connection with cases determined in the Family jurisdiction.

The issue with which the appeal was concerned was the decision to join a child’s foster parents, who had a wish to adopt the child, to the care proceedings.

Application to circumcise a boy subject to an interim care order

Hertfordshire Local Authority (the LA) applied for a reporting restriction order (RRO) in proceedings concerning three children whose mother was murdered by their father.

Court of Appeal allows an appeal stating that the fact that an application is made by email or decided without a hearing does not mean that it should receive less careful scrutiny and there are limits to the use of flexible and informal decision making and the default position is that there should be a hearing, even if conducted remotely.

First instance judgment of Peel J following a final hearing in care proceedings in which a central issue was the level of risk to the subject child presented by findings of Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) made within previous proceedings relating to other children 7 years earlier.