Exploring applications for declarations of parentage (Akyuz v Akyuz)

Private Client analysis: Michael Wells-Greco, partner at Charles Russell Speechlys, examines the issues in Akyuz v Akyuz and examines whether an application for a declaration of parentage should be dismissed or stayed on the basis of forum non conveniens.

Original news

Akyuz  v Akyuz and another [2017] EWHC 2726 (Fam)

The Family Division declined the first respondent’s application to dismiss or stay proceedings brought by the applicant for a declaration of parentage. The court held that although the applicant had first commenced proceedings in the Turkish courts seeking a share in a deceased person’s estate, her application to the English court for a declaration that the deceased was her father did not seek the same relief or remedy as the Turkish proceedings, and the English  proceedings had an important purpose for her which the Turkish proceedings could not achieve. Therefore, the court concluded that England was the more appropriate forum and refused to stay the proceedings.

Read the full article here.