Abbassi v Abbassi
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Judgment Date | 2006 |
| Year | 2006 |
| Date | 2006 |
| Court | Pensions Ombudsman |
Husband and wife – Marriage – Validity – Declaration – Foreign nullity decree – Judge adjourning application for declaration to enable matter to be investigated in Pakistan – Whether judge in error – Family Law Act 1986, s 55(1)(d).
In 1988 the parties married. The wife petitioned within the jurisdiction for the dissolution of the marriage and obtained a decree nisi. However, before the divorce was made absolute, the husband asserted that the marriage had already been validly dissolved by a talaq divorce pronounced in Pakistan some years earlier. He applied to the court for a declaration of validity of the foreign decree, pursuant to s 55(1)(d) of the Family Law Act 1986. The wife asserted that there had been no such divorce and that the documentation relied on by the husband in support of the application had been forged or otherwise improperly procured. At the outset of the hearing, at which the Official Solicitor intervened, the judge indicated that it would be preferable for the validity issue to be determined by the court in Pakistan on the basis that, inter alia, it would be very difficult for the court to undertake a proper investigation of the wife’s allegations as to forgery of the documentation. Despite the objections of the wife, the judge made an order by which he adjourned the application and directed that the husband issue the appropriate application in the Pakistan court to determine the question of validity of the talaq divorce within a specified time. The wife appealed, alleging that the judge had erred in the exercise of his discretion.
Held – A judge had an opportunity and a responsibility to adjourn a case of his own motion for an investigation to be conducted in another jurisdiction, even if that outcome had not initially been sought by the parties. The exercise of that discretion necessarily had a broad ambit and it would be exceptional for an appellate court to hold that such an order was plainly wrong. In the circumstances of the instant case, there were no grounds on which the judge could be said to have exercised his discretion improperly. Accordingly, the appeal would be dismissed.
AppealThe wife appealed against the decision of Roderic Wood J whereby he directed that the husband issue the appropriate application in the Pakistan court to determine the question of validity of the talaq divorce within a specified time. The facts are set out in the judgment of Thorpe LJ.
Sabuhi Chaudhry (instructed by HCL Hanne & Co) for the wife.
Pramod Joshi (instructed by Atteys) for the husband.
Maria Gallagher (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) for the Official Solicitor.
THORPE LJ.[1] The parties to this appeal married in 1988 and within this jurisdiction the wife presented a petition for dissolution which resulted in a decree nisi of divorce which was not made absolute for the simple reason that the husband then asserted that the marriage had been validly dissolved by talak pronounced in Pakistan on 8 July 1999, an assertion which if correct in fact and law and which if recognised under the provisions of the Family Law Act 1986, would have had the consequence of rendering the last two or three years of the parties’ cohabitation non-marital. The husband sought a declaration pursuant to s 55(1)(D) of the Family Law Act 1986, a declaration of the validity of the foreign decree.
[2] That application was strenuously resisted by the wife, who asserted that there had been no such divorce in the summer of 1999 and further that the documentation relied on by the husband in support of his application was bogus, forged or otherwise improperly procured. Directions were of course given for the trial of the issue and the case was listed before Wood J with a time estimate of four days commencing on 11 April 2005. The Attorney General had intervened in the proceedings and expert opinion had been sought, two of the experts being instructed by the Attorney, the other jointly instructed by the parties. In very broad summary, the experts all noted irregularity and inconsistency in the documentation but were generally of the view that the asserted talak divorce would be recognised as valid in Pakistan.
[3] Wood J had the opportunity of reading the considerable case papers over the preceding weekend and at the outside of the trial he informed the parties of his preliminary view that it would...
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