Legal Update: Court Report - Hearings determine child's residence

Judge: Lord Neuberger, Lady Hale, Lord Wilson, Lord Hughes, Lord Hodge

Location: Supreme Court

K, aged 7, was born in Texas and is a US citizen. K's father is a US citizen and the mother has indefinite leave to remain in the UK. After the parents divorced in Texas in March 2008, the mother took K to London and then applied for indefinite leave to remain for K that year, without notice to the father, and resisting the agreed contact arrangements.

There followed several hearings in both the US and the UK, concerning the question of K's primary residence. These resulted in K being taken back to the US, then returned to the UK. The mother was then ordered, in August 2012, to take K back to the US; an order with which she did not comply. Since August 2011, K had become integrated into a social and family environment and the judge had been entitled to find K habitually resident here.

The court was able to exercise its inherent jurisdiction under the Family Law Act 1986. The existence of an order made by a competent foreign court was a relevant factor and crucially, K was a Texan child being denied a proper opportunity to develop a relationship with his father and his birth country. There was nothing to suggest K would suffer harm through a return to Texas, in light of the protective undertakings offered by the father. It was held that K was habitually resident in the UK, but he was to be returned to the US under the court's inherent jurisdiction.