Family proceedings
Re HH (a child) (contact order: stay of order pending appeal) [2022] EWHC 3369 (Fam), [2023] All ER (D) 05 (Jan)
The Family Division granted the appellant mother an interim stay of a contact order which had been granted to the father in circumstances where the mother’s challenge on the findings of fact and on procedural unfairness during the hearing were pending permission to appeal (PTA). The court so ruled on the basis that it was satisfied that: (i) the mother’s grounds of appeal were not fanciful; and (ii) if an interim stay was not awarded, the viability of the mother’s appeal would be extinguished. That criteria had to be met for the appeal court to award an interim stay pending the decision on PTA on the basis that the court should be focusing on whether the refusal of such an interim stay would stifle the proposed appeal or render it nugatory. Further, in such circumstances, it should not be seen as being of the same character as a full stay of execution awarded at the same time
