PIL instrument(s)

Case number and/or case name

A Local Authority v MGM, X, Y, Z (Minors acting by their children’s Guardian [2014] EWHC 1221 (Fam)

Details of the court

England and Wales, First Instance

Articles referred to by the court

Date of the judgement

11 March 2014

Appeal history

CJEU's case law cited by the court

Summary

The proceedings were in respect of three children X, Y, Z who were all in their teens. All the children were born in Czech Republic. The children were in the care of their mother up until the 2000. Thereafter, they were cared by their grandmother. The grandmother and the children arrived in England in 2009. The local authority was involved because there was a concern as to the care of the children. The situation was worsen by the death of the grandmother’s husband. The care proceedings were initiated by the local authority. Since all the three children were habitually resident in England, the jurisdiction of the English court was not questioned. However, the English High Court decided to make a transfer-of-proceedings request to the Czech courts. Mrs Justice Theis held: “24 […] I am satisfied on the facts of this case that that transfer request should be made and it should be made without delay. So I will make a request to the court in the Czech Republic to assume jurisdiction in accordance with para 5 of Article 15 . I will also endorse the directions, that I propose to be part of this request, under Article 56 to be able to elicit some more information in relation to the arrangements for Y and Z if the request is accepted. I also have to bear in mind that the request may be declined. It may be the decision of this court, if it retains jurisdiction, to consider whether there should be an order to place the children in another jurisdiction which would still be a course open to me. So it is important that this court has the best information available. It is also important for Y and Z to be able to know what arrangements would be in place for them if the request that has been made under Article 15(5) is accepted. [24]