Re F
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Lord Justice Ward,Lord Justice Wall |
| Judgment Date | 10 July 2008 |
| Neutral Citation | [2008] EWCA Civ 938 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
| Docket Number | Case No: B4/2006/2553 |
| Date | 10 July 2008 |
[2008] EWCA Civ 938
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE
COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION)
ON APPEAL FROM THE PRINCIPAL REGISTRY OF THE FAMILY DIVISION
HER HONOUR JUDGE COATES)
Royal Courts of Justic
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Lord Justice Ward
Lord Justice Wall
Case No: B4/2006/2553
THE APPELLANT APPEARED IN PERSON
THE RESPONDENT DID NOT APPEAR AND WAS NOT REPRESENTED
This is a renewed application being made by Mr F for permission to appeal the order for costs made against him by HHJ Coates sitting as a judge of the High Court on 1 November 2006 at the conclusion of contested proceedings relating to the child of the parties, a young boy who soon will be 10 years old.
The proceedings before the judge were principally the father's application for a residence order in respect of the child, mother's applications in respect of his contact which she wished to be defined and supervised, together with an application she made on the day of the hearing for an order under section 91(14).
The case centres on the fact that the father discovered when he was with the boy that the boy's penis was discoloured. The boy explained to him that the mother's partner had squeezed his penis. The father took the child to a doctor who examined the boy, observed that there was this discolouration, reported the matter to the social services department; they investigated it fully, the boy made contradictory statements about the partner hurting him and father hurting him, the father brought the proceedings because he was and probably still is convinced that his son had been abused by this other man.
The mother counter-charged with allegations that the father had abused his own son. There was a good deal of evidence which it is unnecessary to rehearse here, but among the evidence was a report from Dr Judith Trowell, a well known child psychiatrist who was jointly instructed, who found that the boy had been sexually abused. In fact in the judgment the judge handed down, she was eventually satisfied that there was no sexual abuse, that the discolouration was more likely to have been consistent with a normal phenomenon, as she described it, of congestion or could have been associated with inflammation or infection. But she was quite satisfied that there was no sexual abuse committed either by the partner or by the father. She found established the fact that there was truth in the boy's complaint to his father that the partner had played spanking games with him, spanking him on the backside in a way the boy did not like, but the judge, though finding that happened, adjudged that it was all in play and in games and was therefore of no great significance. In the result the father's application for residence was dismissed.
Having handed down the written judgment, there was then a long delay before costs could be dealt with and the hearing appears to have been adjourned on some occasions because the father had suffered a breakdown. When, however, the matter was finally listed for 1 November he had written to the court indicating that he was unwell, that he was unable to attend, that he was endeavouring to obtain pro bono assistance and seeking a further adjournment. The court was aware of his ill health and aware of the fact that he would not be in attendance. On the eve of the hearing a schedule of costs was served upon him but not, as I understand it, counsel's skeleton argument; and so the judge, in dealing with costs, had to deal with the fact that the father was not there.
In a sense were are in the same dilemma today because notice has been given to the mother, and her solicitors have written to the court on 9 July a letter of which we have taken full account, explaining that she is abroad, she will not attend, she cannot afford the services of solicitors, and they have explained her position on paper and we, as I say, take full account of that.
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G (Children)
...or all of the costs. That decision has been followed and endorsed in a number of cases, in particular Re F (Family Proceedings: Costs) [2008] EWCA Civ 938. 7 So the task that the father has to mount this morning before this court is to persuade us that the judge was in error in concluding t......
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A Father and A Mother
...Sir Andrew confirms that decision has been followed and endorsed in a number of cases, in particular, Re F Family Proceedings: Costs [2008] EWCA Civ 938. [22] In Re G the decision of the lower court in relation to costs was upheld. The court validated the three reasons for the trial judge m......