The Court of Appeal allowed an appeal by An tArd-Chláraitheoir, the Registrar General, and upheld the refusal to register Sergey Chesnokov as having been born in Dublin in 1940. The court found that the evidence did not establish his claimed birthplace on the balance of probabilities.
Chesnokov, a Russian citizen living in Latvia, said he was born at 5 Henrietta Street, Dublin, on 28 September 1940. A Soviet birth certificate registered in Moscow on 14 October that year records Dublin as his birthplace. The Court of Appeal noted that the certificate’s authenticity had not been challenged.
Chesnokov applied in 2010 for late registration under the Civil Registration Act 2004. The Registrar General refused, saying the material did not adequately establish that the birth occurred in Ireland. The High Court allowed Chesnokov’s appeal and directed that his birth be registered. The Registrar General then appealed to the Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal extended the time for the High Court appeal, even if it had been brought late. It said the difficulty of investigating events from 1940 provided good reason for an extension and that no prejudice to another party had been shown. It also agreed that an appeal under section 60(8) of the 2004 Act is an appeal on the record: the High Court must reach its own conclusion from the material before the Registrar General, while taking account of the Act’s objectives for accurate and certain civil registration.
The evidence included the Soviet birth certificate and later documents, including a marriage certificate, passport, trade union card and driving licence, that also gave Dublin as the birthplace. Statements by Chesnokov’s aunt, family members and acquaintances supported his account, but the court noted that some were based on what others had said rather than direct knowledge. The Russian registry had said it no longer held the original birth-registration papers because they were kept for only one year. Searches by Chesnokov’s solicitors for other records in Ireland and from the Red Cross were unsuccessful.
In a judgment delivered by Gerard Hogan, the court said the Soviet certificate was evidence of birth in Ireland and that a foreign birth certificate could, in some circumstances, be sufficient. But the later documents largely derived from the same original record. The court considered the wartime travel restrictions and the absence of a detailed account explaining how Chesnokov’s mother could have travelled with an undocumented newborn from Dublin to Moscow within about 16 days.
Hogan J. concluded that the evidence did not meet the balance-of-probabilities standard for late registration under section 19(5). The appeal was allowed for that reason, and the Registrar General’s refusal was upheld. The judgment does not determine any separate application for citizenship.