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K v G [2020] EWHC 3209 (Fam)
The mother's appeal against a finding, made at a fact-finding hearing in the course of Children Act proceedings, that she had assaulted the father just before they separated. She appealed on the grounds that the judge had been in error regarding the photographs the father had taken of his injuries. Judd J DBE found that the date stamps showed that the photographs had been taken on a date inconsistent with the father's account of events, which would have undermined his reliability and credibility with regard to the entire incident. The finding of the Recorder was thus set aside. However, orders had subsequently been made in the Children Act proceedings, and Judd J DBE did not think it desirable or proportionate for the matter to be remitted for rehearing, so it would rest as it was. Judgment, 28/11/2020, free -
A v R [2020] EWFC B50
The seven-year-old boy had dual Dutch and French nationality, and was agreed to be habitually resident in England and Wales with his mother. The French father, living in a non-Hague Convention country, sought a detailed order regulating his time with his son, and giving him permission to take the boy out of England and Wales on trips, including to his present country of residence. The mother had not engaged with proceedings or the father's solicitors, citing illness. HHJ Corbett, sitting as a s 9(1) deputy judge of the High Court, found that the mother had ignored the court proceedings, hoping that they would go away, but he had heard from her in detail and at length at the hearing. He was satisfied that each parent had had a fair trial in accordance with Article 6, and that the orders he would make were necessary and proportionate interferences with their Article 8 rights. He decided upon the dates which the son would spend with the father. As to international travel, there was in his judgment no risk of abduction, but the father would be directed to lodge a bond with his solicitors, to be paid to the mother if necessary to fund her legal costs of securing a return. The mother was ordered to respond to reasonable requests from the father regarding the son within 48 hours, and to give him 14 days' notice of any overseas travel plans. Judgment, 28/11/2020, free -
BAILII gets MoJ lifeline
The most widely used free public online database of court judgments has been handed a one-year lifeline. News, 27/11/2020, free -
Grounds for setting aside an order: a break with tradition? CB v EB [2020] EWFC 72
Mostyn J considered whether FPR r. 9.9A allows a set aside application to be made relying on facts which do not satisfy the terms of the traditional grounds. Case note, 27/11/2020, free -
MG v AG (Appeal out of time: Relief from sanctions) [2020] EWFC B49
An application by the former husband for permission to appeal out of time against the order for him to pay to the wife a lump sum of £3.09m, as well as periodical payments of £4,750 per calendar month and other amounts. The husband argued that he could not afford to meet the terms of the order, and that the judge had taken half the value of the husband’s shareholdings in two private companies with no evidence-based indication as to how the husband would be able to raise the required lump sum. The wife's position was that the appeal was not just out of time, but hopelessly so, and that the evidence at trial had indicated that the husband had been planning to sell his business interests in order to satisfy the lump sum payment, rather than relying upon dividends. In Mr Recorder Salter's judgment, the delay here was "serious and lacking in any good explanation". He had no hesitation in reaching the conclusion that he was unable to grant relief from sanctions and that accordingly the application for permission to appeal had to be dismissed. Judgment, 21/11/2020, free -
MT v VA (Second Application: Legal Services Provision order) [2020] EWHC 3087 (Fam)
The former husband applied for a legal services payment order pursuant to section 22ZA of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. As matters currently stood, neither party owned assets of any significant value. The former wife had been engaged in offshore litigation, which so far had proved unsuccessful, reducing but not eliminating the likelihood of recovery from that source. Roberts J was satisfied that legal services funding was not an option open to the former husband, nor was he a candidate for a commercial litigation funding arrangement. Focused legal advice could serve to narrow the issues which were currently preventing a settlement. The question then was whether the former wife was in a position to satisfy a legal services provision order. After considering the criteria in section 22ZB(1)(a)–(g), Roberts J decided that she would be able to procure the funding to meet such an order, and would not thereby be exposed to undue hardship or prevented from obtaining her own legal advice. The former wife was ordered to pay the former husband £95,000. Judgment, 21/11/2020, free -
Slip ups and the slip rule: IC v RC [2020] EWHC 2997 (Fam)
Gwynneth Knowles J considered the application of the slip rule where a court order made in 2017 had referred incorrectly in one paragraph to the ‘applicant’ instead of to the ‘respondent’. The order had consequently erroneously set out that the husband was to stop paying periodical payments to the wife upon his own remarriage, rather than upon the remarriage of the wife. Case note, 19/11/2020, free -
Moutreuil v Andreewitch & Anor (Contempt: Sentence) [2020] EWHC 3085 (Fam)
A hearing at which Cobb J considered the appropriate sanction for breaches of a freezing injunction. The parties had never married, but lived together for about 20 years and had five children. The female partner had asserted that there had been 562 withdrawals from the account, and the vast majority had been proven. Cobb J took into account that it was not the female partner's wish to see the male partner imprisoned, and that the breaches had been deliberate, repeated, and over an extended period of time, leaving the account materially depleted, and that the male partner had at no time admitted his wrongdoing or accepted responsibilty for the breach. A six-month sentence of imprisonment would be the appropriate sanction, suspended for twelve months, to ensure his compliance with the extant final orders. Judgment, 18/11/2020, free