A (Children)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Lady Justice King,Lady Justice Black,Lord Justice Aikens |
| Judgment Date | 29 January 2015 |
| Neutral Citation | [2015] EWCA Civ 133 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
| Docket Number | Case No: B4/2014/2506 |
| Date | 29 January 2015 |
[2015] EWCA Civ 133
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL CIVIL DIVISION
ON APPEAL FROM
LIVERPOOL COUNTY COURT
(HIS HONOUR JUDGE DODDS)
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand
London, WC2A 2LL
Lord Justice Aikens
Lady Justice Black
Lady Justice King
Case No: B4/2014/2506
Mr Mark Senior (Carter Levin & Berg) appeared on behalf of the Appellant.
Mr Damian Sanders (Wirral Borough Council) did not attend and was not represented
(As Approved)
This appeal arises out of the peremptory dismissal on 13 June 2014 by His Honour Judge Dodds of an application for a direction for DNA testing made on behalf of a 13-year-old girl, "SA" in support of her application for a declaration of parentage under section 55A of the Family Law Act, 1986.
The Family Court in Liverpool has been concerned for a number of years with the A family; the chaotic and neglectful way in which the five children of the family were cared for by their parents, "KA" and "BA" led, on 26 October 2011, to care orders being made by consent in relation to all of the children of the family. Matters did not run smoothly for the children thereafter; the parents, it seemed, undermined the children's placements and encouraged them to abscond in order to have unauthorised contact with them.
Matters came to a head in 2014. The parents each applied for the discharge of the care orders, or, in the alternative, for increased contact with the children. The Local Authority for their part cross-applied for permission to refuse contact. The applications were listed for final hearing before the judge on 30 June 2014. Julie Greenhall was appointed as the children's Guardian, instructing Ms Hazel Roberts of Carter Levin & Berg Solicitors. SA now instructs Ms Roberts direct.
On 16 June 2014, the Guardian and Ms Roberts each separately spent time with SA. SA told each of them that for a long time she had not believed BA to be her biological father. She thought she knew who her father was and she wished to find out the truth. In the light of this, the Guardian, appropriately and properly, made a late application on 27 June 2014 for a declaration of parentage under section 55A of the Family Law Act, 1986 with a view to obtaining an order for DNA testing at the hearing listed a few days later. It was anticipated that the necessary orders would be made by consent. On the face of it then, there was nothing uncontroversial about this application.
The importance of and the right of children to know the identity of their biological father has long been recognised and has only recently been restated by the President in Re Z (Children) [2014] EWHC 1999 Fam. Para An application under section 55A is the proper procedural route in order to determine the parentage of a child. It must therefore have caused Ms Roberts and Mr Saunders (who acted on behalf of the Local Authority), considerable consternation when the judge, having dismissed out of hand the father's application to discharge the care order as, "Factious" and the mother's as, "An affront", turned to Mr Saunders and told him that in relation to the section 55A application, "You may want to put your crash helmet on".
Mr...
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