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European Court of Human Rights
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> European Court of Human Rights >> Hartje HOUT v UNITED KINGDOM - 33170/04 [2007] ECHR 747 (12 September 2007)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/ECHR/2007/747.html
Cite as: [2007] ECHR 747
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12 September 2007
FOURTH SECTION
Application no.
33170/04
by Hartje HOUT
against the United Kingdom
lodged on
14 September 2004
STATEMENT OF FACTS
THE FACTS
The applicant, Hartje Hout, is a Dutch national who was born in 1981 and lives in Australia. She is represented before the Court by Mr N. Barnes of Ashton Allen Barnes, a Guernsey law firm.
A. The circumstances of the case
The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicant, may be summarised as follows.
The applicant alleged that she was the daughter of Ms Paula Hout and Mr Richard Francis Andrew Hugo, a Guernsey resident. The applicant submitted a written declaration by her mother stating that Mr Hugo was her father.
The applicant's mother and Mr Hugo lived together for a short period in Guernsey, when the applicant was conceived. Her mother then moved to Holland, where the applicant was born and shortly afterwards Mr Hugo visited them there. The applicant and her mother then moved to Australia. The applicant became aware of her father's identity when she was eight years old and she then started to correspond with him. She first met him when she went to Guernsey in 2000 at the age of nineteen. The applicant submitted photocopies of correspondence between them, dated 2000-2004 and photographs of her stay in Guernsey in 2004 as evidence of their personal relationship. Mr Hugo's replies to her are very affectionate; however, he always signed them under the name of Rick.
Mr Hugo died on 22 March 2004. As far as the applicant is aware he left no other children and has never been married. In accordance with Guernsey law, since he died intestate, his real and personal estates, consisting of a property in St. Peter Port, estimated to be worth 545,000 pounds sterling (GBP), passed on intestacy to his siblings. The applicant believes that it was her father's intention that she should receive his estate.
In the absence of any entitlement under Guernsey law the applicant maintained that there were no proceedings she could bring in Guernsey to establish a claim to the estate and that the Human Rights Act 1998 was not applicable to Guernsey.
B. Relevant domestic law
Guernsey is a British crown dependency in the English Channel. The Bailiwick (the bailiff's area of jurisdiction) is not represented in the United Kingdom Parliament and Acts of Parliament do not apply in the Bailiwick unless extended by Order in Council.
The Law of Inheritance 1954, applicable to the Island of Guernsey by means of Order in Council Volume XVI of 1954, provided that a surviving spouse shall be entitled to the enjoyment until remarriage of one half of the real estate of the deceased spouse. Subject to the preceding, any person could dispose by testament of any interest in real estate to which he was entitled at the time of his death, provided that a person leaving descendants could do so only in favor of any one or more or all of the following: his surviving spouse, his descendants, his illegitimate children and their descendants, and his stepchildren and their descendants.
If a person died intestate, subject to the life interest of the surviving spouse as mentioned above, the estate would automatically vest in the heirs of the deceased starting with legitimate children and followed by siblings. However, any child or remoter issue who was illegitimate would not be entitled to any share in the deceased's estate, unless he or she had been specifically named as a beneficiary in the deceased's will.
Domestic law did not provide for recognition of illegitimate children. However, legislation will soon be introduced to give an illegitimate child the same rights as a legitimate one.
In January 2001 the Human Rights (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2000 was registered in the Royal Court. However, the Law only entered force on 1 September 2006 by virtue of the Human Rights (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2000 (Commencement) Ordinance, 2006. No retroactive effect was given to this provision of the Law.
COMPLAINT
The applicant complained under Article 8 of the Convention, taken in conjunction with Article 14, that the provisions of Guernsey law relating to her right of inheritance from her father were discriminatory.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES