E, Re, Court of Appeal - Family Division, May 27, 2005, [2005] EWHC 848 (Fam)

Reporting Judge: [2005] EWHC 848 (Fam)

President: E, Re

Linked as:

Extract

E, Re, Court of Appeal - Family Division, May 27, 2005, [2005] EWHC 848 (Fam)

Case No: FDO4P01580

Neutral Citation Number: [2005] EWHC 848 (Fam)

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE

FAMILY DIVISION

Royal Courts of Justice

Strand, London, WC2A 2LL

Date: 27/05/2005

Before :

THE PRESIDENT

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Re E

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Mr Henry Setright QC (instructed by Dawson Cornwell) for the Plaintiff

Mr Stephen Cobb QC (instructed by Bindmans) for the Defendant

Hearing dates: 19th/20th April 2005

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Judgment

Sir Mark Potter, P :

1. These Hague Convention proceedings concern E, a female child born on 5 May 1998, now 7 years old. The Applicant (`the father') seeks an order for her return to Spain by the Respondent (`the mother') on the basis that she has wrongfully retained E in England where she is at school, since the end of the school Summer Term on 22 July 2004. The mother raises an issue as to jurisdiction and, if that issue is resolved against her, a defence under Article 13(b) of the Convention. The parties have never married. They are both British nationals. They commenced their relationship in 1993 in Spain where both of them were living and continued to live until August 2003. Since that time there has been a chequered history of proceedings in Spain and England. The mother has, however, been living with E in London, returning to Spain occasionally for business reasons only save that in January 2004 she travelled with E to Spain in order to facilitate the welfare interview of E as directed in the Spanish proceedings.

2. In June 2002 the mother and father separated in Spain. In the summer of 2003, with proceedings between the parties pending in the Spanish court, she made plans to return...

See the full content of this document