PIL instrument(s)

Case number and/or case name

Re: S (A Child) [2014] EWHC 4643 (Fam)

Details of the court

England and Wales, First Instance

Articles referred to by the court

Date of the judgement

17 October 2014

Appeal history

CJEU's case law cited by the court

Summary

The proceedings were with regard to a child, S. The mother was from Croatia; the father was from Greece. The parties met and married in England. The child was born in October 2009. There were a number of proceedings between the parties in both Greece and England. The child was abducted by the father in January 2014, and stayed in Greece. In spite of the fact that the child had been habitually residing in the UK, the Greek court, ignoring Article 17 of Brussels IIa, wrongfully assumed jurisdiction. Following an application for a return order which was made by the mother in March 2014, the child was returned to England in August 2014. In October 2014, Mr Justice Wood made an order, determining the living arrangements for the child. He noted: “82 It proved very easy for the paternal family to mislead the Greek court as to its jurisdiction, as they appear to have done; and also as to the habitual residence of the child. It took months to rectify this. Even then, having decided that the habitual residence of S was England before the wrongful retention by the father, they did not declare that they had no jurisdiction as is required by Article 17 of the Regulation, nor did they accept that they had no powers, taking account of Articles 8 and 10 of the Regulation, to make more than interim measures pursuant to Article 20 of it.” [82]