Litigation Letter
Court seised when divorce petition is issued
Thum v Thum [2016] EWHC 2634 (Fam), 21 October 2016
The petitioner in this case was the wife and the respondent was the husband. The petition was issued on 26 October 2015, but she took no steps to serve it until 19 January 2016, and because the address used was inadequate, service was only achieved on 27 February 2016, when the husband was given the papers at Heathrow airport. Before that however, the husband had actually issued his own German petition on 19 January 2016, and the question was which court should have jurisdiction.