Emma R and Edward R
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | The Honourable Mrs Justice Baron DBE,Mrs Justice Baron |
| Judgment Date | 10 November 2004 |
| Neutral Citation | [2004] EWHC 2572 (Fam) |
| Court | Family Division |
| Docket Number | Case No: FD03P1660 |
| Date | 10 November 2004 |
[2004] EWHC 2572 (Fam)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE FAMILY DIVISION
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
The Honourable Mrs Justice Baron Dbe
Case No: FD03P1660
Judith Parker QC (instructed by Messrs Withers) for the Applicant
Barry Singleton QC and Madeleine Reardon (instructed by Messrs Manches)for the Respondent
Approved Judgment
Hearing dates: 26 October – 1 November 2004
I direct that pursuant to CPR PD 39A para 6.1 no official shorthand note shall be taken of this Judgment and that copies of this version as handed down may be treated as authentic.
This judgment is being handed down in private on …………. It consists of ……. pages and has been signed and dated by the judge. The judge hereby gives leave for it to be reported.
The judgment is being distributed on the strict understanding that in any report no person other than the advocates or the solicitors instructing them (and other persons identified by name in the judgment itself) may be identified by name or location and that in particular the anonymity of the children and the adult members of their family must be strictly preserved.
1) This is an application by Emma R (to whom I shall refer as the Mother) for a residence order and permission to take the two children of the family to live with her in Paris on a permanent basis. The children are A (who was born on the 4 th July 2001 – 3 1/4 years old) and C (who was born on the 4 th October 2002 – 2 years old). Mr Edward R (to whom I shall refer as the Father) objects to the children being removed from the jurisdiction, moreover he says that there should be no order in relation to residence but, if there is, then it should be a joint residence order. Whatever order I make in relation to the children's future place of residence, each party requires some elements of contact to be defined.
2) Over some 5 days in Court I have been able to watch the parties closely and I have heard a great deal of detailed evidence from both Mother/Father and a number of witnesses on behalf of each. This case has been conducted fairly, but with a great deal of passion by both sides. To my mind, it was noticeable that the children's specific needs were often relegated from being the central issue as most of the evidence was directed to the Mother's wishes and requirements —on the simple premise that a contented and fulfilled mother makes for a happy child. I remind myself at the outset of this judgment that it is the children's needs that are my paramount consideration.
3) It is the Mother's case that a move to Paris is essential because, inter alia:
a) She is deeply unhappy in London.
b) She feels "totally alone" and wishes to start her life afresh.
c) She has no support network in London.
d) She now has no female friends in London as all her close friends (including those from her school days) now live abroad.
e) She has lived the majority of her adult life abroad and does not enjoy living in London.
f) By reason of her background and upbringing she feels "more French than English", particularly as she is bilingual.
g) She feels closer to her French family (namely 3 aunts and a number of cousins who live in Paris). It is her case that, albeit that her mother, father and brother live in London, they do not offer her the support she needs. She considers that her French family will provide that essential support network. Her parents agree that she should move to Paris.
h) Although the Father and his family say that they offer her support, they do not. In fact, it is her case that they seek to undermine her care of the children. Moreover, she maintains that the R family have subjected her to a good deal of emotional and financial pressure since the separation. In short, as her counsel put it, "they talked the talk, but did not walk the walk".
i) She will be able to live in a nicer home in Paris because property is less expensive.
j) It is a good time for the children to become bilingual (to date, they have been brought up to speak English).
k) The children can go to international/English schools in Paris and so will maintain their English language.
l) Contact can be maintained on a fortnightly basis because the train journey by Eurostar is short enough to enable the children to travel to London once a month. She proposes that on alternate weekends the Father can have contact in Paris. The holidays can be split – namely: 10 days at Christmas and Easter; two blocks of 10 days in the summer holidays and one half of each half term. She also offers the Father midweek contact if he is able to travel to Paris.
m) If travel by train is difficult, then it is her case that it is possible to fly from Charles de Gaulle to Southampton Airport, which is only some 30–50 minutes from the paternal grandparent's country home where, to date, the children have spent their weekend contact with the Father.
n) The Mother offers the Father any legal safeguard he seeks – including mirror orders, undertakings and an acceptance that England should remain the primary jurisdiction.
o) If there are concerns about her emotional health, she will undertake a course of psychotherapy. To assure the Court and the Father of her genuineness, the suggestion that she made on the third day of the trial was that her mother would accompany her to Paris and stay (during the week) for as long as was necessary to enable the Mother to complete her therapy.
4) The Father maintains that the Mother should not be permitted to live in Paris because, inter alia:
a) Her plans are not sufficiently well constructed.
b) She is emotionally unstable, impulsive and needs therapy now to resolve a number of outstanding issues. In support of this assertion, he gives a number of examples of her erratic behaviour in the recent past.
c) Her desire to live in Paris is part of a pattern by which she seeks to run away from difficult situations.
d) Her connection with her French family is not as strong and supportive as she asserts.
e) She could have and ought to have developed a network of support in London. Her failure so to do is a matter of choice coupled with her difficult personality. Accordingly, she will have the same problems in Paris or elsewhere.
f) Her closest relatives are in England and they are a more assured form of support than more distant family members in Paris. Although they have expressed their support for the move, in reality, he doubts that they feel that it is for the best.
g) He and his family will offer support (if accepted). In any event, he considers that he should be close at hand to deal with such crisis as may arise. It is his case that some sort of crisis is inevitable given the Mother's character.
h) His contact with the children will be disrupted. In particular, he considers that (i) the travel from Paris to London is too great a burden for the children to undertake each month, (ii) the train journey means that contact would have to take place in London rather than the country (as at present), (iii) the alternative plan (viz: the plane journey to Southampton) is too long and difficult to make country visits easy,(iv) he has no base in Paris, (v) he would lose his present midweek contact (viz: Thursday nights) and (vi) it is impractical to expect him to travel to Paris for mid-week contact.
i) He is not convinced that the Mother is as committed to contact as she currently asserts.
j) At this stage in the girls' lives, he considers that it is vital that the children have regular and easy contact with him. He feels that the girls need his input and stability.
k) He is concerned that the Mother will not settle in Paris and that her sojourn there will be short in duration. If she becomes dissatisfied, then he fears that she will seek to move to Los Angeles (as this was her first wish on separation) or somewhere else.
l) In the event of a move to France, it is asserted on his behalf that the French Court will have jurisdiction and he may find it difficult to stop a further move and will have to conduct any future litigation about any point of concern relating to the children's upbringing in the French courts.
The Factual Matrix .
5) I will set out the relevant facts as I find them. For the avoidance of doubt, insofar as the matters set out in this Judgment differ from the evidence of the Mother or the Father, this is because I have preferred the evidence of the other party, another witness or because I consider that the documents produced confirm my finding of fact. I wish to note expressly that I consider that I have been in an unrivalled position to watch the demeanour of these parties and that this has revealed a great deal more than the statements so, whereas on paper, this case may have appeared finely balanced, in the final analysis having seen and heard the parties, my decision is clear and firm.
The Parties
6) The Father was born on the 7 th January 1968 (36 years old). He is English. As a result of his own father's endeavours, his parents are wealthy. They have homes in Manresa Road, Chelsea and at Caigers Farm, Hampshire. They also have a home in Klosters (albeit that that property was placed in the names of their 3 children). The Father has two younger sisters – namely, Lorna (who was married some two weeks ago) and Selina. The Father was educated at Eton College and took a degree from the University of East Anglia. From 1990 to 1995, he worked in Hong Kong where, it seems, he lived a somewhat louche lifestyle which involved the use of call girls and the occasional use of recreational drugs.
7) In 1995, he returned to London and lived in a property provided by his parents. He began work in the City as an investment manager and still works in that capacity. His basic net income is about £80,000 per annum. Last...
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...European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms were cited by Baron J. in her judgment in R v R (leave to remove) [2004] EWHC 2572 (Fam) at paragraphs 91 and 92. I hope I may be allowed to treat those paragraphs as read into this judgment without setting them out in extenso. I ......