Devon County Council v S and Another (Wardship)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 22 November 1993 |
| Date | 22 November 1993 |
| Court | Family Division |
Family Division
Before Mr Justice Thorpe
Children - wardship proceedings - liberal construction of Children Act 1989
The court, when considering whether to grant leave to a local authority to institute proceedings under the wardship jurisdiction, should not construe section 100 of the Children Act 1989 too restrictively.
Mr Justice Thorpe so held in the Family Division when allowing an appeal by the local authority from the refusal by Mr District Judge Turner sitting at Taunton of an application seeking leave to invoke the inherent jurisdiction under section 100.
Section 100 of the 1989 Act provides: "(2) No court shall exercise the High Court's inherent jurisdiction with respect to children … (d) for the purpose of conferring on any local authority power to determine any question which has arisen, or which may arise, in connection with any aspect of parental responsibility for a child.
"(4) The court may only grant leave if it is satisfied that (a) the result which the authority wish to achieve could not be achieved through the making of any order of a kind to which subsection (5) applies …"
Mr George Meredith for Devon County Council; Miss Cynthia Gifford for Mr Y; Mrs S, the mother, did not appear and was not represented.
MR JUSTICE THORPE said that Mrs S, an exemplary mother, had nine children by three different fathers.
Mr Y, not one of the fathers but a family friend, was a welcome visitor to the home. He had three previous convictions for sexual offences against children. The three younger children were at risk. The local authority had to protect them.
The district judge had refused the local authority's application to seek leave to apply for the exercise of the court's inherent jurisdiction on the ground that it was seeking to exercise restraining powers which the mother held but did not choose to exercise and which were against the express terms of section 100(2)(d).
His Lordship said that on a proper construction of the subsection it was plain that the local authority intended to invite the court to exercise its inherent jurisdiction to protect the children rather than to have any...
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