Father blocked from further vexatious litigation

Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division of the High Court of England and Wales, placed a Grepe v Loam order on a father preventing him from issuing any further litigation. Judge Munby also warned fellow judges that, if they received further court applications from the father, they should read an old witness statement from him which was packed with “exremely crude, vulgar and defamatory” language and which made “the most outrageous and fatuous allegations about both Judge Hogg and Judge Baker (who had dealt with the litigation at one stage).”

In K v K [2015] EWHC 1064 (Fam) the parents of two teenagers had been in litigation against each other for over five years – first over divorce finances then a prolonged dispute over where the teenagers, now aged 18 and 16, would live and how often they would see their father.

The father made two applications in January to vary the financial order and to restart proceedings to see the teenagers. He then filed more proceedings the following month including one to have the mother tried for perjury. This was swiftly followed by an application from the mother to have the father jailed for breaking a non- molestation order.

By the time of the hearing in March the father filed various disclosure applications and statements.

Judge Munby threw out the father’s attempt to have the mother tried for perjury saying he had failed to provide any evidence.
As to the other matters he said the father was “simply attempting to re-litigate yet again matters already determined against him” but that there was “nothing whatever new” in his attempts. The father had alleged that the mother had lied under oath about her adultery and that she had blackmailed him into signing a financial settlement by threatening that he would not see the children if he did not sign.

Judge Munby said the adultery, admitted or not, had no bearing on the court’s decision about Non-Molestation Orders, finances or contact with the children.