REGISTRATION OF PRIVATE LAND

Stages Leading to Registration of Adjudicated Land Land is adjudicated by the Director of Lands Adjudication & Settlement Area list, Registry Index Map, Adjudication Records and Certificate of finality sent to the Chief Land Registrar by the Director of Land Adjudication and Settlement Chief Land Registrar checks the records and if found correct forwards them […]

FAMILY LAW – JURISDICTION AND PROCEDURE

JURISDICTION AND PROCEDURE Occupation orders and non-molestation orders can be made in other family proceedings or on a separate application. They can be made by a magistrates’ court (subject to appeal to the High Court), by a county court or by the High Court, but magistrates have power to decline jurisdiction if they think it […]

REMEDIES IN TORT

REMEDIES IN TORT It is only a few years ago that the courts began to develop a tort of harassment against which relief might be granted by way of injunction, but the gradual and uncertain common law developments have now been overtaken by statute. Patel v Patel [1988] 2 FLR 179, CA After persistent harassment […]

FAMILY LAW – DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE The phrase “domestic violence” is usually taken to mean unlawful violence used or threatened by one spouse or cohabitant against the other. The perpetrator is usually the male partner, and pronouns are used in this chapter on that assumption, but cases of violence by the female against the male are by no means […]

FAMILY LAW – RIGHTS OF OCCUPATION

RIGHTS OF OCCUPATION Quite separate from questions of legal or beneficial ownership is the right to occupy the matrimonial home. Under s.1(1) of the Matrimonial Homes Act 1983 and s.30(2) of the Family Law Act 1996 (which consolidated earlier legislation) a non-owner spouse has a statutory right to occupy the matrimonial home, and cannot be […]

FAMILY LAW – Marriage

BARS TO A DECREE Where a marriage is voidable (as opposed to void ab initio), the court will refuse a decree of nullity if one of three “bars” exists. A petition is barred by s.13(1) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 if the respondent can show that the petitioner, knowing the marriage to be voidable, […]

FAMILY LAW 1 – Failure to consent.

FAILURE OF CONSENT – INSANITY The formalities of marriage involve declarations of consent by both parties, and (even if the officiant were to go ahead) in the absence of such declarations the marriage is void. Apparent consent may not be real consent, however, if it is the result of insanity, duress (which does not necessarily […]

FAMILY LAW NOTES.

LEGAL CONSEQUENCES OF MARRIAGE According to Blackstone, writing in about 1765, the husband and wife were one person in law: the legal existence of the woman was suspended and incorporated into the personality of her husband. She could not make a contract except as her husband’s agent, and although she could commit torts her husband […]

FAMILY LAW – Formalities

All marriages must be conducted with a certain amount of formality, and all marriages must be registered. This not only emphasizes to importance attached to the contract, but enables the parties and others to declare with reasonable certainty whether they are married and, if so, when they became married. This may be important, for example, […]

FAMILY LAW – Capacity to Marry

In order to contract a valid marriage, the parties must possess the legal capacity to marry and must comply with certain formalities: a failure in either respect renders the marriage void. Parties have the capacity to marry if and only if they are not within the prohibited degrees of relationship, over 16 years old, not […]