The two girls were with their mother in Scotland. The father, living in France, sought their return to France:
Held: The court granted the father’s application. The Lord Ordinary: ‘After considering all the relevant evidence I am satisfied that the children had not immediately before 20 November 2013 lost their habitual residence in France. They had both been born there and lived there in family with their parents until 26 July. This was a French family living in France. There is nothing which happened thereafter which persuades me that they had ceased to be habitually resident in France. I conclude from the evidence and productions presented that the stay of the respondent and the two children in Scotland was to be of limited duration, consisting of the period of her maternity leave. I do not regard the sale of the family home in Narbonne as evidencing a joint intention to leave France for good. I am not persuaded that there was a joint decision to uproot themselves from France and relocate permanently to Scotland. The petitioner has his own expanding business in Narbonne, for which he relies on his livelihood (sic) and in order to maintain the respondent and children. He speaks little or no English. I reject as fanciful any suggestion that he intended to set up a business in Scotland. That would have involved abandoning his established business in France and attempting to set up a business in a country where he did not speak the language and had no obvious prospect of succeeding. He continued to live and work in France after the respondent and children came to live in Scotland, although he visited them regularly. The respondent and children returned to France on two occasions after their move to Scotland. Certain of the children’s belongings were in storage in France. The lease of the property in which the respondent and children were living in Scotland was in her name alone. Nothing in the communications between the parties indicates a joint intention to uproot themselves from France and relocate permanently to Scotland.’
Citations:
Unreported, 17 June 2014
Statutes:
Child Abduction And Custody Act 1985
Cited by:
Appeal from – AR, Re An Order Under The Child Abduction and Custody Act 1985 SCS 14-Nov-2014
(Extra Division, Inner House – Opinion of Lord Malcolm) – appeal in application for order of return of two children to their father in France. The partis disputed whether Scotland had become habitually resident in Scotland, and also whether the . .
At Outer House – AR v RN (Scotland) SC 22-May-2015
The court was asked whether it should order the return to France of two little girls who have been living with their mother in Scotland since July 2013. The issue arose under article 3 of the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Children, Scotland
Updated: 18 May 2022; Ref: scu.566222