A Dutch woman who launched divorce proceedings in the UK against her Swedish husband has lost her bid to pursue her divorce settlement in English courts.
The recently published cases of N v N explains that the couple married in Las Vegas and spent their time between homes in Sweden and Spain. They occasionally visited the UK, but they did not own a home here.
When the marriage broke down, the wife relocated to the UK to start her own business.
The husband launched divorce proceedings in the Swedish courts, but the wife ignored these and instead launched proceedings in the English Courts. The husband ignored these, but the case proceeded anyway and the wife was granted a decree nisi.
The wife applied for maintenance payments under Section 27 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, but her husband asked that the decree nisi be set aside asking the English courts to conclude that they lacked jurisdiction.
Mr Justice Moor, sitting in the Family Division, concluded that the English courts did lack the proper legal authority to pursue the cases and should decline jurisdiction as requested by the husband. This would be in keeping with the Brussels II Revised, which is the EU regulation governing jurisdiction in international family law.
As the man’s financial interests were located in Sweden, it was appropriate that the financial hearings should take place here.
So why do some people seek to have their divorce proceedings take place in England and others seek to avoid this happening?
Read our earlier post: WHY DO MANY PEOPLE SEEK TO HAVE THEIR DIVORCE IN ENGLAND?