The husband sought to stay divorce proceedings commenced here by his wife, saying that they had already been divorced in Nigeria. The wife said the Nigerian proceedings should not be recognised in English law.
Held: The cases established: 1) that the power was to be interpreted widely, but the powers need not be exercised if there were other ways of achieving the interests of te respondent spouse. The cases will differ. 2) The court must satisfy itself that reasonable steps had been taken to notify the respondent spouse of the proceedings. 3) When asking whether approprite notice had been given the court must consider all the circumstances and the nature of te hforeign proceedings. 4) Whether reasonable notice had been given was to be judged by English standards acknowledging the nature of the overseas proceedings. 5) It was a question of fact whether proper steps had been taken to notify the respondent and 6) The question was not what notice had in fact been given but whether the petitioner spouse had taken reasonable steps to notify the respondent spouse. On those principles, the divorce in Nigeria was not to be recognised, and the wife’s petition could proceed.
Judges:
Jeremy Richardson QC
Citations:
Times 18-May-2005, [2005] 2 FLR 1042
Statutes:
Family Law Act 1986 51(3)(a)(I)
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – D v D (Recognition of Foreign Divorce) FD 13-Oct-1993
Ghanaian dissolution of marriage was invalid and not recognised here since the wife had not been allowed any involvement. . .
Cited – El Fadl v El Fadl FD 2000
The court was asked as to the recognition of a Sharia compliant divorce between Lebanese Muslims. Under the relevant Lebanese 1962 legislation a Talaq was to be pronounced before 2 witnesses, a requirement of most systems of traditional Islamic . .
Cited – Wicken v Wicken 1999
Recognition of foreign divorce. . .
Cited by:
Cited – Liaw v Lee (Recognition of Divorce) FD 3-Jun-2015
The applicant sought that the decrees nisi and absolute of divorce issued by the High Court of Malaya at Shah Alam in favour of the respondent husband be refused recognition in England and Wales.
Held: The application was granted: ‘the husband . .
Cited – Ivleva v Yates FD 4-Mar-2014
By an application Mrs Ivleva (formerly Yates) sought (i) recognition in this jurisdiction of a divorce granted in Ukraine in respect of her marriage to Mr Yates and (ii) the dismissal of divorce proceedings brought in this jurisdiction by Mr Yates. . .
Cited – Lachaux v Lachaux FD 2-Mar-2017
. .
Cited – Radseresht v Radseresht-Spain FD 13-Oct-2017
Applications by H for declarations that a divorce granted in 2009 in Dubai is entitled to recognition in England and Wales under s.45 of the 1986 Act, and of status under s.55 of the Act, and going with that his application to strike out the prayer . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Family
Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.224976
