CASE OF ÓNODI v. HUNGARY
Violation of Article 8 - Right to respect for private and family life (Article 8 - Positive obligations;Article 8-1 - Respect for family life)
Egidijus Kūris;Ganna Yudkivska;Iulia Motoc;Vincent A. De Gaetano;Georges Ravarani
5. The applicant was born in 1965 and lives in Szajol. 6. On 6 October 1990 he married Ms N.R. The couple had one daughter, R.Ó, born on 23 March 1994. 7. On 24 March 2006 the couple divorced and agreed on custody of the child and other parental rights. Their agreement, which was approved by the Szolnok District Court, placed the daughter with her mother and granted the applicant contact every other weekend, during the school holidays, Easter Sunday, Whit Monday, the first holiday following Christmas Eve and three weeks during the summer holidays. The applicant was also to pay child allowance, amounting to 20% of his salary, but at least 20,000 Hungarian forints (HUF approximately 66 euros (EUR)) per month. 8. Ms N.R. moved out of the former family home and took up residence in Budapest. 9. The applicant could exercise contact on 25 and 26 June and 24 July 2006. However, his daughter was reluctant to stay with him during the summer holidays and preferred to spend her holidays with her grandparents. 10. The applicant’s further attempts to exercise contact failed, seemingly because in the mother’s view it was up to the child to decide whether she wanted to see her father. The applicant applied to the Szolnok County Guardianship Authority to have the contact agreement enforced. In a decision of 11 September 2006 it ordered Ms N.R. to comply with the agreement, warning her that failure to do so could result in her being fined and ordered to reimburse the applicant’s travel costs. Given the strained relationship between the parents, a notary initiated child protection proceedings (védelembe vétel) on 27 December 2006. Subsequently, on a number of occasions Ms N.R. was fined for not complying with the agreement. It appears from the case file that the applicant could exercise contact between 10 July 2007 and 10 November 2008. 11. In 2007 Ms N.R. brought an action seeking to change the applicant’s contact rights and an increase in the amount of child allowance. In a counterclaim the applicant requested that the child be placed in his custody. 12. The applicant also filed a criminal complaint against Ms N.R. alleging child endangerment. The parties’ attempt to stabilise the relationship between the applicant and his daughter during the suspension of the custody proceedings were unsuccessful and the Szolnok District Court ordered that any meetings between them take place at a child protection centre. 13. In a judgment of 10 June 2008 the Szolnok District Court reduced the applicant’s contact with his daughter to every first and third Saturday of the month from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. It held that the previously agreed form of contact was unlikely to be implemented and would only lead to further proceedings before the guardianship authority, which would be to the detriment of the child. The court based its judgment on an expert opinion finding that the child should have had an adaptation period to re-establish her relationship with her father. The court dismissed the applicant’s claim concerning custody, stating that the child’s wishes had to be taken into account, given that she was now fourteen years of age. 14. On 19 November 2008 the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County Regional Court upheld the first-instance judgment in essence but amended the applicant’s contact rights to every other Saturday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. until 31 May 2009, and all weekend-long visits every other weekend as of 1 June 2009. 15. In 2009 the applicant failed to turn up at numerous scheduled meetings for months, for which he was fined HUF 10,000 (approximately EUR 35). 16. In 2010 the applicant’s contact rights and the amount of child allowance were subject to further litigation. On 29 January 2010 the Szolnok District Court dismissed an action brought by him seeking to decrease the amount of child allowance, and a review of the way contact should be exercised. The court established that since the court decision of 19 November 2008, no contact had taken place between the applicant and his daughter and, despite a request by the applicant, the guardianship authority had taken no steps to implement the judgment on the grounds that he had made no efforts to resolve the conflict with his daughter. In particular, he had paid no heed to her request to travel by public transport instead of in his car. The court also found that in the absence of any significant change in circumstances, there was no reason to amend the arrangements for contact. 17. In a final judgment of 15 April 2010 the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County Regional Court reviewed the applicant’s parental rights, granting him contact every other weekend on the condition that the daughter, who was by now already 16 years old, be allowed to visit him by herself. The court dismissed the applicant’s request for a decrease in the child allowance. The applicant lodged a petition for review with the Supreme Court. It was dismissed on 8 February 2011. 18. It appears from the case file that meetings between the applicant and his daughter only took place sporadically in 2010 and did not happen at all in 2011, despite the applicant lodging numerous enforcement requests with the guardianship authority. 19. In 2011 the applicant requested that the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Guardianship Authority and all subordinate guardianship authorities be excluded from any further proceedings for bias. On 12 December 2011 the Budapest Regional Guardianship Authority appointed the Budapest XV District Guardianship Authority to deal with any further proceedings concerning the enforcement of the applicant’s contact rights, noting that at that point there were eight enforcement requests pending, the oldest dating back to January 2010. 20. The applicant lodged a number of requests seeking to end his obligation to pay child allowance, which were finally accepted by the Budapest IV and XV District Court on 10 October 2012 and on appeal by the Budapest High Court on 3 September 2013. Nonetheless, an additional request by him for the reimbursement of the child allowance he had already paid was dismissed at both levels of jurisdiction.