MOTHER DOES NOT WANT HER CHILDREN TO SPEND TIME WITH THEIR UNCLE
Bacaris & Bacaris & Anor [2020] FCCA 2495 (17 August 2020)
This case involves an uncle seeking time with the children of his deceased brother despite objections from the mother of the children
Facts:
These are interim parenting proceedings brought by the applicant paternal grandmother and applicant paternal uncle
The paternal grandmother seeks time with the two children, X and Y. Prior to their father’s death, the paternal grandmother played a significant role in the life of the child, X. The paternal grandmother has spent limited time with Y, who was born only months before his father’s death. The paternal uncle’s application is that he spends time with the children when the paternal grandmother does.
The Mother has no objection to the paternal family being present during time between the Paternal Grandmother and the children other than the Applicant Paternal Uncle.
The police material suggests that there is a basis for the mother’s concerns about problems in the relationship between the paternal uncle, and the children’s father. She has been advised about that by the children’s father during the course of their relationship. She has also made observations of problems which she says have been caused by the paternal uncle: intervening to discipline the children of other people in the extended family; in the relationship with the father; the manner he behaved towards her by videoing her in January of this year.
Issue: Is the uncle entitled to spend time with his deceased brother’s children?
Law:
- 60CC- How a court determines what is in a child’s best interest
(3) Additional considerations are:
(b) the nature of the relationship of the child with:
(i) each of the child’s oarents; and
(ii) other persons (including any grandparent or other relative of the child)
Analysis:
The problem is it is not clear he is a person concerned with the care, welfare and development of the children. As The court indicated during the course of submissions, it seems to it that on the evidence presently available there are matters that require testing, and I should not make orders on an interim basis.
There appears to be a very limited relationship between the children and the paternal uncle. It appears his engagement with them has been as an adjunct to the paternal grandmother. At times he has been present in the household with them, because he lived there. He has been present at family events along with other family members, and engaged with the children in that context.
It does not appear to the court that it would be at the child’s best interest for there to be anytime between the children and the uncle.
Conclusion: The Paternal Grandmother shall ensure that the Paternal Uncle is not present at any time the children spend time with her.