Ansah v Ansah
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | LORD JUSTICE STAMP,LORD JUSTICE ORMROD |
| Judgment Date | 13 December 1976 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [1976] EWCA Civ J1213-2 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
| Date | 13 December 1976 |
[1976] EWCA Civ J1213-2
Lord Justice Stamp
Lord Justice Ormrod and
Sir John Pennycuick
In The Supreme Court of Judicature
Court of Appeal
Civil Division
Miss. CLAIRE MISKIN (instructed by Messrs Foster, Wells & Coggins, Frimley, Surrey) appeared on behalf of the Appellant (Wife).
The Respondent (Husband) appeared in person.
The Judgment which is about to be delivered by Lord Justice Ormrod is the Judgment of the Court.
At the conclusion of the argument in this case we allowed both appeals by the wife but, because the case raised some important issues relating to the granting and enforcement of injunctions in matrimonial proceedings, we thought it right to put our reasons into writing.
There are two separate appeals before the Court; the first, from an Order made ex parte on the 13th September, 1976, by His Honour Judge Lermon, sitting in the Guildford County Court, restraining the wife appellant (petitioner in the suit) from returning to or entering upon the matrimonial home, and from molesting the husband; the second, from an Order made by His Honour Judge McNair, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, on the 20th October, 1976, committing the wife to prison for contempt for molesting the husband and returning to the matrimonial home in breach of the Order of the 13th September, 1976. Fortunately, the learned Judge suspended this Order on the terms that the wife did not return to or enter upon the matrimonial home or molest the husband.
The facts, so far as they are relevant, are as follows: The parties, who are Ghanaian by origin, were married on the 2nd April, 1973. They have two children, born respectively in July 1973 and March 1975. Both parties are nurses and the last matrimonial home was 32, Sheridan Road, Frimley in Surrey. The marriage has been exceptionally stormy, the wife having left home previously on three separate occasions, allegedly on account of the husband's violence towards her. The end of the marriage came on the 7th April, 1976, when the wife left for the last time and went to live at the nurses' home. The twochildren were and are in the care of foster parents.
On the 13th April, 1976, the wife applied ex parte for an Order restraining the husband from molesting her or the children and for an Order turning him out of the home. The husband's Solicitor, who was in Court, although the proceedings had not been formally served, consented on his client's behalf to an injunction, limited to molestation only, which was accordingly made. Pursuant to her undertaking, the wife filed her petition on the 23rd April, 1976, and the husband filed his answer on the 14th May, 1976. She petition contained very serious allegations of violence, the answer was a denial, with some confession and avoidance, and asked only that the prayer to the petition be rejected. The case was then transferred to the High Court in accordance with the rules.
On the 23rd June, 1976, the wife applied to commit the husband for breach of the Order of the 13th April, but the parties came to terms, the wife withdrawing her summons to commit, the husband agreeing to withdraw his answer and to permit the wife to have custody of the children. Agreement was also reached for the disposal of the matrimonial home. The husband has subsequently repudiated all the terms of this agreement except the abandonment of his answer. The case, however, remained in the High Court until an Order was made on the 29th October, 1976, staying the prayer of the answer, and ordering the cause to be transferred back to the Guildford County Court. Meanwhile, on the 2nd September 1976, an Order was made giving custody of the two children to the wife, with access to the husband.
On the 13th September, 1976, the first of the two Orders appealed from was made, in unusual circumstances. On that day the husband appeared in person before His Honour Judge Lermonin the Guildford County Court, to make an application ex parte for an injunction against his wife, restraining her from returning to the matrimonial home and from molesting him. He produced a home-made affidavit sworn the same day at the County Court in which, after referring to various quarrels and grievances, he alleged that the wife "… threatened to burn all my clothing. On occasions she threatened to break our front entrance door glass which she did. She always abusing me pointing her finger on my nose. I cannot bear such abuses and treatment any longer. I would therefore ask this Honourable (Court) to grant an injunction not to come to the matrimonial home or any of her friends to phone and abuse me until the house is sold".
The proceedings were, in fact, wholly irregular because the cause was still proceeding in...
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