D v D (Custody of Child)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | LORD JUSTICE ORMROD,LORD JUSTICE EVELEIGH |
| Judgment Date | 22 June 1979 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [1979] EWCA Civ J0622-3 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
| Date | 22 June 1979 |
[1979] EWCA Civ J0622-3
In The Supreme Court of Judicature
The Court of Appeal
(On appeal from Edmonton County Court)
Lord Justice Ormrod and
Lord Justice Eveleigh
MR. M. ROBERTS (instructed by Messrs Maltz, Mitchell & Co. of London) appeared on behalf of the Appellant.
MR. S. RUBIN (instructed by Messrs. Godfrey Leighton & Co. of London) appeared on behalf of the Respondent.
This is an appeal by a father from an order made by His Honour Judge Wakeley on 16th May of this year at Edmonton County Court under which he transferred custody of the youngest of three daughters from the father to the mother.
This is a very sad case, because there is no doubt that the father is extremely fond of this child and feels the prospect of losing her care and control very much. The parties were married in March 1961; the husband is 43 and the wife is 36. They had three children, Deborah born in 1964 who is 15, Melanie bom in 1966 who is 13 and Denise born in June 1968 who is therefore just 11. The marriage became unhappy and the parties separated in June 1974 when the mother left but, having nowhere to take the children, she left them with her husband. They remained there until quite recently. The wife filed a petition in April 1975. The marriage was ultimately dissolved by decree nisi on 29th October 1975, followed by a decree absolute on 29th December 1975.
At the time of the decree nisi there was a constant order providing for joint custody of these three girls with care and control of them all to the father. Since that time the father has, with the aid of his mother, been bringing up these three young girls. No doubt he has had a difficult time as all fathers in such circumstances have. If must have been under a very great strain throughout. The children have kept contact with their mother by means of access and since 1976 the mother has formed an association with a Mr, Tyler with whom she is living and whom she may or may not marry; the learned Judge has assumed that that attachment between the mother and Mr. Tyler is a reasonably film one. She is now, therefore, in a position to offer accommodation for these children.
In fact the whole family situation has been unbalanced by the behaviour of the eldest of the girls, Deborah. It is common ground that she has been very difficult. She has clearly got quite out of hand; in fact somuch so that in May last year the father telephoned the mother to say that he could not cope with Deborah any more. For a while Deborah joined her mother, only to find out of course that her mother and Mr, Tyler expected something more reasonable by way of behaviour from this 15-year-old. Finding that she was not getting her own way with her mother, Deborah returned to her father and she is still there.
The middle child, Melanie, everyone seems to agree has been thoroughly miserable for a long time, bullied by Deborah it is said and missing her mother very much; she has now gone to her mother by consent, so the three girls are now split.
The only question the learned Judge had to decide was whether to leave Denise, the youngest, with the father or whether it would be right to transfer her to the mother. He came to the conclusion, without any difficulty or doubt whatever, that Denise should certainly go to her mother. He took the view that Deborah was likely to be a very bad influence on Denise and the father was obviously not able to control the situation to any...
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