The Court of Appeal dismissed a husband’s appeal against an order staying his Irish judicial separation proceedings while the English court’s jurisdiction was determined. It concluded that the English court was first seised under EU rules because the wife’s divorce petition had been lodged there before the husband presented his summons in Ireland.
The dispute concerned the timing rule in Article 16 of Regulation 2201/2003, which determines which court is first seised when related matrimonial proceedings are brought in different EU states. The husband’s Irish special summons was presented to the Central Office of the High Court at about 2.30pm on 7 September 2015. The wife’s divorce petition had been delivered in an envelope to the English Family Court Office at 7.53am that day and was opened and date-stamped by 10.30am. It was issued on 11 September and served on the husband on 15 September. The Irish summons was served on the wife on 9 September.
The High Court found that the English petition had been opened and date-stamped before 10.30am and that the English court was first seised. It stayed the Irish proceedings until the English court’s jurisdiction was determined. The husband appealed.
The Court of Appeal had referred a question about the meaning of “lodged with the court” to the Court of Justice of the European Union. The CJEU ruled that the relevant time is when the initiating document is lodged with the court, even if lodging does not immediately start proceedings under national law. The applicant must not subsequently have failed to take required steps to serve the document.
Applying that ruling, the Court of Appeal held that the English petition was lodged by 10.30am at the latest, when it had been recorded as received. The Irish High Court was not seised until the summons was presented at about 2.30pm. The court said the wife had not failed to comply with any condition relating to service.
The appeal was dismissed. The Court stressed that it was not deciding whether delivery of an originating document in an envelope, before the envelope is opened, constitutes lodging for Article 16 purposes. That question remains open for another case. The order under appeal stayed the Irish proceedings pending determination of the first-seised court’s jurisdiction; this judgment did not itself decide the English court’s jurisdiction.