The High Court has found that an applicant was not ordinarily resident in Ireland between January 2023 and March 2024, rejecting her claim that she shared ordinary residence between Ireland and England. The finding was made on a preliminary issue about the court’s jurisdiction under the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010.
The applicant had brought proceedings seeking relief under the Act. The respondent asked the court to declare that it could not exercise jurisdiction and to strike out those proceedings, arguing that the applicant had not been ordinarily resident in Ireland throughout the year before the relationship ended.
The relationship’s end date was disputed. The judge considered the period from January 2023 to March 2024 rather than fixing a precise date. She found the applicant had not discharged the burden of proving ordinary residence in Ireland during that period.
The applicant said the couple shared their time between homes in Ireland and England, and that she helped run the Irish household and took part in the lives of the respondent’s children from his marriage. The respondent described her time in Ireland as visits and disputed the extent of her household and childcare role. The court heard oral evidence over several days and considered affidavits, travel records, messages and other documents.
The judge focused on objective evidence, including that the applicant did not rent or own a home in Ireland, had no Irish bank account, PPS number, health insurance or utility account, and worked and managed her personal and business affairs in England. She also found that online shopping for the Irish property was generally done remotely from England and paid for by the respondent. The court considered these circumstances alongside the applicant’s travel and the evidence about her presence in Ireland.
The judgment accepted that a person may have ordinary residence in more than one place and that “throughout” does not require continuously living in one place for the full year. But the applicant first had to establish that her residence in Ireland was ordinary. The court found the evidence did not show a settled, usual abode in Ireland as part of the regular order of her life.
The court made no precise finding on the date the relationship ended. It directed that the matter be listed on a date convenient to counsel to address issues arising from the judgment. The decision concerned the preliminary jurisdiction issue; it did not determine the other relief sought in the proceedings.