The Father (Respondent) v The Mother (Appellant) (Trinidad and Tobago)

Case summary

Case ID

JCPC/2025/0060

Jurisdiction

Trinidad and Tobago

Parties

Appellant(s)

The Mother

Respondent(s)

The Father

Issue

Was the Court of Appeal justified in setting aside the judge’s order which revoked F’s parental rights (i) without a trial, but (ii) on the basis that both M and F consented that the judge should determine the issue without a trial?

Facts

The parties are anonymised for the purposes of this appeal. M and F are the parents of a child (“C”). C was born in August 2017. In May 2018, after various disputes about access to and care of C, F and M entered a consent order (“CO1”). Pursuant to CO1, M was granted sole custody, care and control of C but F retained his parental rights. M and F agreed a visitation plan. Relations between M and F continued to worsen and M made allegations that F was abusing both M and C. M applied for a court order removing the parental rights F had retained under CO1. M’s evidence included communications that appeared to be from F, specifically: (i) emails from March 2021 to August 2022 that were extremely abusive about M and C (“the Emails”); and (ii) an affidavit filed with the court in September 2022, in which F stated that he wanted nothing to do with C and did not care if his parental rights were removed (“the Affidavit”). F denied writing both the Emails and the Affidavit. At a hearing in June 2023, F and M entered a further consent order that the judge could determine M’s application without a trial, on the parties’ legal submissions only (“CO2”). In October 2023, the judge determined that F had written both the Emails and Affidavit, and ordered that F’s parental rights be removed. The Court of Appeal allowed F’s appeal, on the basis that the disputed authorship of the Emails and the Affidavit raised issues of credibility that should have gone to trial notwithstanding CO2. The case was remitted to trial before a different judge. M now appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, against the Court of Appeal’s decision.

Date of issue

4 July 2025

Case origin

PTA

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