Category: Children

A Council v M and Others (Judgment 2: Welfare): FD 17 Jul 2012

[2012] EWHC 4242 (Fam)
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
See Also – A Council v M and Others (Judgment 1: Fact-Finding) FD 8-Mar-2012
Application for care order in respect of four children. . .

Cited by:
See Also – A Council v M and Others (Judgment 3: Reporting Restrictions) FD 20-Jul-2012
Applications were made for the protection of the identity of children and family members ahead of care and criminal proceedings. The order was resisted by several news organisations.
Held: a conclusion that the Art 8 rights of individuals . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Children

Updated: 24 January 2022; Ref: scu.509154

A Council v M and Others (Judgment 1: Fact-Finding): FD 8 Mar 2012

Application for care order in respect of four children.

Peter Jackson J
[2012] EWHC 4241 (Fam)
Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
See Also – A Council v M and Others (Judgment 2: Welfare) FD 17-Jul-2012
. .
See Also – A Council v M and Others (Judgment 3: Reporting Restrictions) FD 20-Jul-2012
Applications were made for the protection of the identity of children and family members ahead of care and criminal proceedings. The order was resisted by several news organisations.
Held: a conclusion that the Art 8 rights of individuals . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Children

Updated: 24 January 2022; Ref: scu.509153

A Local Authority v DG and Others: FD 24 Jan 2014

Keehan J condemned ‘the wholesale failure of the parties’ in these care proceedings to comply with case management directions which had been given on a number of occasions over the previous four months, and said: ‘The conduct of the parties in this matter and the wholesale failure to comply with case management directions is lamentable. Family practitioners must wake up to the fact that, whatever the difficulties presented by public funding issues and/or the pressure of work, the court will no longer tolerate the failure of parties to comply timeously with court orders. Those failures simply lead to unacceptable delays in the proceedings which are wholly inimical to the welfare of the children involved.’

Keehan J
[2014] EWHC 63 (Fam)
Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – In re W (Children) FD 25-Jul-2014
. .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Children, Litigation Practice

Updated: 24 January 2022; Ref: scu.520751

Re D (A Child): FD 29 Jan 2014

The child was born with multiple severe handicaps, and dependant on constantly being fed oxygen. The local authority sought a care order after suspecting that the mother had sought to disconnect the oxygen supply. After investigation the police were not taking any further part.
Held: The court was not satisfied that the mother had committed the act complained of.

Mostyn J
[2014] EWHC 121 (Fam)
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Re D (A Child) FD 29-Jan-2014
The child was born with multiple severe handicaps, and dependant on constantly being fed oxygen. The local authority sought a care order after suspecting that the mother had sought to disconnect the oxygen supply. After investigation the police were . .

Cited by:
Cited – Re D (A Child) FD 29-Jan-2014
The child was born with multiple severe handicaps, and dependant on constantly being fed oxygen. The local authority sought a care order after suspecting that the mother had sought to disconnect the oxygen supply. After investigation the police were . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Children

Updated: 24 January 2022; Ref: scu.521215

In re FT and NT (Children): FD 11 Apr 2013

The mother applied for a summary order requiring the return of the family’s two children, saying that they had acquired a habitual residence there.
Held: ‘The requisite period of time is not fixed and will depend upon the facts of each case. Bringing possessions, doing everything to establish residence before coming, having a right of abode, seeking to bring family, durable ties with the country of residence or intended residence and many other factors have to be taken into account. Habitual residence may be acquired despite the fact that the move may only have been temporary or on a trial basis. A month has been held to be ‘an appreciable period of time’ though that has been described as ‘the high water mark’ in a case where the Court of Appeal upheld the trial judge’s finding that six weeks was sufficient to result in the acquisition of a new habitual residence. ‘

Pauffley J
[2013] EWHC 850 (Fam)
Bailii
England and Wales

Children

Updated: 24 January 2022; Ref: scu.472581

Re Alcott (No 2): FD 29 Sep 2016

In an application for a summary order for the return of a child to Australia, the court now considered applications for the release of materials in the media.

Alex Verdan QC
[2016] EWHC 2414 (Fam)
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
See Also – Alcott (No 1) FD 27-Sep-2016
. .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Children, Media, Human Rights

Updated: 23 January 2022; Ref: scu.569860

Re C (Minors): CA 23 Jul 1991

The natural father of two illegitimate boys appealed against an order standing over generally, with liberty to restore, his application for a parental rights order under section 4 of the 1987 Act. The adjournment was directed upon the basis that the PRO application would be reconsidered a year later, after a court welfare officer’s report had been filed. On the face of it, an appeal against a simple direction of that kind would scarcely be maintainable, because decisions on administrative questions, such as whether or not to adjourn a case for further report, are essentially matters of case management for the judge. The appellant contends, however, that the judge’s decision in the present case, when the reasons which he gave for it are analysed, amounted in fact to a full and concluded determination of the PRO application, and to a determination that was moreover misconceived in law. As for the purported adjournment order, that is attacked as being inherently misconceived since there was (by definition) nothing to adjourn once the issue had been decided; or alternatively on the ground that the judge reached the adjournment decision of his own initiative without hearing the views of either party as to whether this was a case in which a decision should be deferred.

Mustill LJ, Wate J
[1991] EWCA Civ 10, [1992] 2 All ER 86, [1991] FCR 865, [1992] 1 FLR 1
Bailii
Family Law Reform Act 1987 4
England and Wales

Children

Updated: 22 January 2022; Ref: scu.262632

The Ampthill Peerage Case: HL 1977

There was a dispute about the legitimacy of an heir to the title. New evidence had been discovered after the trial.
Held: The House considered whether a new trial of an action might be ordered after discovery of new evidence: ‘The law knows, and we all know, that sometimes fresh material may be found, which perhaps might lead to a different result, but, in the interests of peace, certainty and security it prevents further enquiry. It is said that in doing this, the law is preferring justice to truth. That may be so: these values cannot always coincide. The law does its best to reduce the gap. But there are cases where the certainty of justice prevails over the possibility of truth . . and these are cases where the law insists on finality.’
However: ‘For a policy of closure to be compatible with justice, it must be attended with safeguards: so the law allows appeals: so the law, exceptionally, allows appeals out of time, so the law still more exceptionally allows judgments to be attacked on the ground of fraud.’
Having a particular status in law means ‘the condition of belonging to a class in society to which the law ascribes peculiar rights and duties, capacities and incapacities.’ (Lord Simon of Glaisdale)

Lord Wilberforce considered the status of legitimacy: ‘There can hardly be anything of greater concern to a person than his status as the legitimate child of his parents: denial of it, or doubts as to it, may affect his reputation, his standing in the world, his admission into a vocation, or a profession, or into social organisations, his succession to property, his succession to a title. It is vitally necessary that the law should provide a means for any doubts which may be raised to be resolved, and resolved at a time when witnesses and records are available. It is vitally necessary that any such doubts once disposed of should be resolved once and for all and that they should not be capable of being reopened whenever, allegedly, some new material is brought to light which might have borne upon the question.’

Lord Wilberforce, Lord Simon of Glaisdale
[1977] AC 547
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Couwenbergh v Valkova CA 27-May-2004
The deceased’s family lived in Europe. The defendant had moved in as tenant and had become confidante and friend over many years. A will had been prepared leaving everything to the defendant. That will had been challenged alleging incorrect . .
Cited – In Re R (Parental responsibility: IVF baby); D (A Child), Re HL 12-May-2005
The parents had received IVF treatment together, but had separated before the child was born. The mother resisted an application by the father for a declaration of paternity.
Held: The father’s appeal failed. The Act made statutory provision . .
Cited – J v S T (Formerly J) CA 21-Nov-1996
The parties had married, but the male partner was a transsexual, having been born female and having undergone treatment for Gender Identity Dysphoria. After IVF treatment, the couple had a child. As the marriage broke down the truth was revealed in . .
Cited – Judge v Judge and others CA 19-Dec-2008
The wife appealed against an order refusing to set aside an earlier order for ancillary relief in her divorce proeedings, arguing that it had been made under a mistake. The sum available for division had had deducted an expected liabiliity to the . .
Cited – AB v CD FD 24-May-2013
The Applicant AB, a lesbian woman aged 37, applied for contact to twin boys, E and F, aged 3. In making that application, she described herself as the boys’ ‘parent’; she ws so defined on the boys’ birth certificates. For the first 17 months of . .
Cited – Takhar v Gracefield Developments Ltd and Others SC 20-Mar-2019
The claimant appellant alleged that properties she owned were transferred to the first defendant under undue influence or other unconscionable conduct by the second and third defendants. The claim was dismissed. Three years later she claimed to set . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Litigation Practice, Children

Updated: 21 January 2022; Ref: scu.197976

Manchester City Council v D (Application for Permission Withdraw Proceedings After Abduction): FD 11 May 2021

How the court should treat an application by the local authority pursuant to FPR 2010 r.29.4 for permission to withdraw care proceedings under Part IV of the Children Act 1989 where the parents have abducted the children who are the subject of those proceedings from the jurisdiction of England and Wales and, following all reasonable efforts being made by the court, it proves impossible to secure the return of the children to this jurisdiction within a timescale commensurate with the care proceedings.

The Honourable Mr Justice Macdonald
[2021] EWHC 1191 (Fam)
Bailii
England and Wales

Children

Updated: 21 January 2022; Ref: scu.663810

In re W (A Child): CA 29 Jul 2016

The court was asked as to: ‘a) The approach to be taken in determining a child’s long-term welfare once the child has become fully settled in a prospective adoptive home and, late in the day, a viable family placement is identified;
b) The application of the Supreme Court judgment in Re B [2013] UKSC 33 (‘nothing else will do’) in that context;
c) Whether the individuals whose relationship with a child falls to be considered under Adoption and Children Act 2002, s 1(4)(f) is limited to blood relatives or should include the prospective adopters;
d) Whether it is necessary for a judge expressly to undertake an evaluation in the context of the Human Rights Act l998 in such circumstances and, if so, which rights are engaged.’

Jackson, McFarlane, Lindblom LJJ
[2016] EWCA Civ 793
Bailii
England and Wales

Children

Updated: 20 January 2022; Ref: scu.567809

Re A (A Child): CA 13 Jul 2016

Appeal against the making of a declaration declaring that: ‘It is lawful and in A’s best interest to remove his respiratory support by extubating him and, if he becomes unstable, not to reintroduce his respiratory support again but instead generally to furnish such treatment by way of pain relief or sedation and nursing as may be appropriate to ensure that A suffers the least distress and pain at the time and in the manner of his dying.’

McFarlane, King LJJ
[2016] EWCA Civ 759
Bailii
England and Wales

Children, Health Professions, Human Rights

Updated: 19 January 2022; Ref: scu.566887

X, Y and Z, Re (Damages : Inordinate Delay In Issuing Proceedings): FC 23 Feb 2016

Application for declarations and damages pursuant to the Human Rights Act following the two children X and Y being subject to a (purported) s.20 agreement to be accommodated by West Sussex County Council for a period from 19th January 2013 until 15th July 2015 when an interim care order was granted. The application is brought by the mother, Z, and by the Guardian on behalf of the children. The Local Authority state that there has been no breach of their Human Rights and consequently no declarations should be made or damages awarded.

[2016] EWFC B44
Bailii
England and Wales

Children, Human Rights

Updated: 19 January 2022; Ref: scu.566738

Y and Z (Separation of Siblings): FC 9 Dec 2020

‘The decision is that the siblings are to be placed for adoption together and are not to be separated. If, after about four months from today’s date, it has not been possible to find a suitable adoptive placement for the siblings together, then they should be placed separately with contact between them being at least six times a year. I intend to make a full care order for Y and a placement for each child provided that Brighton and Hove City Council changes its care plan as required. I am not making a defined contact order but might do so in the adoption proceedings.’

His Honour Judge Ahmed
[2020] EWFC B59
Bailii
England and Wales

Children, Adoption

Updated: 19 January 2022; Ref: scu.671005