Woman gets protection from ex-husband who crashed wedding

Supreme Court judge says litigation involving man has become ‘vexatious and insupportable’

A man who interrupted his ex-wife’s wedding to her new partner has been prohibited by the Supreme Court from bringing any more legal actions over family law issues unless he has permission of a court.

The man turned up at the wedding ceremony and denounced its legality and claimed he had appealed the divorce decree she had obtained when he had not, Mr Justice Peter Charleton said in a Supreme Court judgment.

“The former wife is entitled to be protected from further nonsensical proceedings,” he added.

The court was dismissing an appeal by the man over proceedings related to the break-up of the marriage and custody of their three children.

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Mr Justice Charleton said this was the 83rd occasion when the court process had been accessed and the litigation had “become vexatious and insupportable”.

Normally unhappy family breakdown had been compounded by difficult circumstances but had not been made easier “by a pervasive suspicion on the part of the husband” in relation to the new partner and his former wife, the judge said.

The family law proceedings were, at least, 20 times before the District Court and eight times before the Circuit Court.

The husband then brought a High Court case claiming he had concerns about the safety of the children and dangers that might be posed by the ex-wife’s new partner, the judge said said.  The children are aged 15, 16 and 21, with the eldest now living abroad.

The High Court made an order in May 2010 based on undertakings including the new partner would not live in the former family home and relatives of the partner would be discouraged from driving the children around.  The man also alleged cousins of the new partner engaged in criminal activities.

The court also directed the couple undergo marriage counselling and that divorce proceedings be issued.

Full custody

Within a year of that case, the husband brought a new High Court application claiming she had failed to abide by the previous court order.  He sought full custody of the children and an order committing her to jail for breach of the order.

The wife said her partner was with her in the former family home at her request because her ex-husband “on numerous occasions has followed me around my locality at any time of day and night”.

The High Court discharged the previous order, saying that order had been designed to see whether by divorcing and accessing mediation, this might in some way lessen the animosity between them.  The divorce proceedings had yet to be issued, it was noted.

The husband appealed the High Court decision discharging the order but allowed his appeal “to lie for four years” despite his concerns about the children, Mr Justice Charleton said.

The wife in the meantime initiated divorce proceedings and was granted a decree on June 2014.

At the wedding ceremony to her new partner earlier this year, the ex-husband turned up denouncing its legality. He claimed he had only become aware of the divorce proceedings, which had been before the Circuit Court, as a result of his appeal to the Supreme Court and he was appealing the divorce decree.

Mr Justice Charleton said no evidence was produced to show there had been an appeal or stay on the divorce decree.

The ex-wife wanted to live an ordinary life free from the continual strain of court appearances, the judge said.

The ex-husband, on the other hand, had “so abused” the court process his claimed purpose for doing so — for the benefit of his children — had not been so.  His litigation activities were a consequence of “an obsessive concentration on wrong that is more apparent than real”.

The appeal was vexatious with a time line indicating the “utter futility” of seeking orders from the court when events had moved on. While orders restraining future litigation are necessarily rare, this case “crossed that boundary”.