M (A Child)

Judgment (Approved)

Lord Justice Peter Jackson:

Introduction

This is an appeal from a decision of order Ms Elizabeth Isaacs QC sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge on 4 August 2017. The issue before her was whether a three-year-old boy should be allowed to relocate with his mother to her native Columbia or whether he should remain in England, dividing his time between his parents care broadly as at present. The decision she made was that the boy, who I shall call L, should live with his mother and that she should have permission to remove him to Columbia at the end of the following October. A detailed schedule of the time that L would thereafter spend with his father was directed. It was to be, in broad terms, annually in Columbia for two weeks at Easter, in this country for half the summer holidays and in this country or Columbia, alternating, at Christmas for four weeks, plus Skype contact and any other visits to Columbia that the father might make.

The father applied for permission to appeal from that decision and I granted permission on 11 October on the ground that, firstly, it was arguable that the judge had given priority consideration to the mother's proposal rather than balancing it against the father's and, secondly, that she had underestimated the benefit to a child of L's age of living in the same country as both his parents. In granting permission to appeal I also granted a stay.

Background

The background can be shortly stated. The mother is in her early forties. She moved from Columbia and settled in London in 1999, remaining there until 2003, when she returned to Columbia quite briefly. The father is in his early thirties. In 2004 he moved to live in London from the North of England, where his parents, the paternal grandparents, live. In 2005, the mother returned to live in London and she has remained there since. In 2012, she acquired British citizenship and also in that year, significantly, she suffered a stroke, which fortunately has not had lasting physical effects but which understandably causes her considerable anxiety. In the same year, 2012, the parents began a relationship, which lasted for about a year, but during that time they did not live together. Up to the time of the hearing before the judge, both parents were working in good jobs. We have been told that since then the mother has lost her employment, something that was mentioned as a real possibility at the hearing.

The parents’ relationship ended in 2013 and after tha