The Court held that Supreme Court parens patriae proceedings commenced in parallel with a part-heard District Court appeal under the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998, s 91 constituted an abuse of process, and that the plaintiff's voluntary discontinuance of the District Court appeal did not cure the abuse. The Court confirmed that a party cannot create the 'exceptional circumstances' required to invoke the parens patriae jurisdiction by deliberately abandoning the statutory jurisdiction best suited to determine the issues. The proceedings were struck out under UCPR r 13.4(1)(a) and (c), with costs ordered but permanently stayed unless the plaintiff commenced substantially similar proceedings.
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