J. W. v M.W.

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: Mr. Justice Doyle
• Judgment Date: 05 July 1978
• Neutral Citation: 1978 WJSC-HC 2129
• Docket Number: 1978/No. 336 SP Ct 8
• Court: High Court
• Date: 05 July 1978

1978 WJSC-HC 2129

THE HIGH COURT

1978/No. 336 SP Ct 8

WHITE v. WHITE

In the matter of the Guardianship of Infants Act 1964

and in the matter of A W and L W, infants

J W

Plaintiff

M W

Defendant

1 JUDGMENT delivered by Mr. Justice Doyle on 5th July 1978

2 The Plaintiff in this case seeks relief under the Guardianship of Infants Act 1964, in particular that he should be awarded custody of the two children of his marriage to the Defendant. Objection has been taken on behalf of the Defendant to the jurisdiction of this Court to deal with the matter. It is claimed that both parties, although born in Ireland, have lived and worked in England where they have acquired a domicile of choice; that both children of the marriage were born in England and are domiciled there, and that consequently all questions of law affecting the right of the family inter se are justiciable only by the English courts.

3 It is well settled law that cogent evidence is required to displace a domicile of origin and to demonstrate that it has been superseded by a domicile of choice. In my view of the evidence, it falls far short of the proof required; on the contrary, it demonstrates on the part of the Plaintiff, who is the party moving the Court, a firm and continuing intention to preserve his domicile of origin.

4 Both Plaintiff and Defendant were born and brought up in Ireland, but each has lived in England for more than twenty years, where they followed their respective employments, and where they married in 1970. At an early stage, marital relations deteriorated. The marriage was scarcely ever a happy one. For some years after their marriage the parties lived in a house which they had purchased at Stratford in an Eastern section of London. Their dissatisfaction with living conditions there is evidenced to some extent by their investigation from time to time of the possibility of emigrating to New Zealand, Australia and the United States of America. Eventually, with a view to rescuing their marriage and improving the prospects of rearing their children, husband and wife decided to sell their Stratford house; with the proceeds they purchased a house and approaching an acre of land in the husband's native county at a place called Brookville, about one mile from the town of Tipperary. The husband, who was a plumber by trade and also possessed other skills in the nature of house repair and decoration, set about refurbishing the new...