Court decisions concerning the family in 2014

Justice: a busy 2014 for families

Babies dead in Chambéry and the Marette laboratory

The year 2014 began with the affair of three premature babies who died in the neonatal intensive care unit at Chambéry hospital. The Minister of Health, Marisol Touraine, very quickly announced the opening of a judicial investigation to determine the cause of the death of infants and in particular the link with the food bags provided by the Marette laboratory in Courseulles-sur-mer ( Calvados). The investigation subsequently uncovers two other suspicious deaths in 2013. Under the pressure of the family and the investigation of the examining magistrate Annaïck Le Goff, Marisol Touraine announced the suspension of the production of the Marette laboratory and the quarantine of the food bags stored in the premises. In parallel, judicial information for homicides and unintentional injuries, deliberate endangering of the life of others and manufacture of drugs without respecting good practices was opened by the public prosecutor of Marseille. Last July, the laboratory closed its doors for “economic reasons”. The premises of the laboratory had indeed remained under seal as part of the judicial investigation conducted at the health center of the Marseille court, since January.

Surrogacy: the Council of State validates the recognition of children born abroad

On December 12, 2014, the Council of State made a decision eagerly awaited by many homosexual couples. Indeed, after the adoption of the Taubira circular, in 2013, at the time of the law on marriage for all, the question of surrogacy (surrogacy) was pending. Several French courts had, during the year, had to rule on the case of children, of French homosexual couples, born abroad by GPA. More often than not, the courts had granted the parents’ request to adopt the child thus conceived, without going to the Court of Cassation. This is the case of the Tribunal de Grande Instance (TGI) of Marseille, for example, which authorized the adoption of a child conceived following surrogacy by his mother’s spouse, in June 2014. Likewise for the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Nanterre, in July 2014, which granted three adoptions of children born by GPA. But other courts had not ruled in this direction. Faced with this imbroglio, the Council of State, the highest administrative court, considered that, even if surrogacy is prohibited on French soil, the fact that a child is born in this way abroad cannot justify depriving him of his nationality , as soon as his filiation with a French parent is legally established: “the child of whom at least one of the parents is French is French, any civil status certificate for French people and foreigners made in a foreign country and drafted in the correct form used in this country is, in principle, authentic ”.

Record compensation for a child born with a disability

The Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal rendered an important decision in December 2014 for the parents of a 14-year-old boy, born disabled after being deprived of oxygen at birth. The family will be compensated with a record sum of 11 million euros due to the medical failures of the accused obstetrician. The latter had already been found guilty and sentenced in 2012 for “involuntary assault and battery” and “fraudulent alteration of the truth”.

Alpes-Maritimes: start of the trial of babies exchanged in 1994

The court of Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes) opened, in December 2014, a long-awaited trial by two families, who had lived with the other’s child without knowing it, for ten years. One of the two mothers filed a complaint against the clinic, where, in 1994, her eldest daughter was exchanged with another baby at birth. The two families are united in the procedure to claim damages of several million euros from the old maternity hospital in Cannes, which has since been closed. In 2004, through a paternity test, the parents learned that their then 10-year-old daughter had no biological connection with them. The investigation carried out by the gendarmerie confirms the dysfunctions of the clinic and the reversal of babies at the clinic. The clinic, two pediatricians, two midwives and the pediatric assistant who was 43 years old at the time will also have to explain themselves to the court of Grasse to explain their act, which dates back 20 years.

Baby born under X: refusal of the justice to return it to the biological father

At the end of November 2014, the Rennes Court of Appeal rendered a verdict awaited by the father of a little boy, 18 months old, born under X and abandoned by his mother at birth, in 2013. The decision of the Court of Appeal went against that of the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Nantes, last April, which had requested the return of the child to his father. The latter has been fighting in court since he filed an early recognition of paternity, a procedure which took a little over two months, the time for the Loire-Atlantique general council to entrust the child to a family of Home. Since then, the father has tried, in vain, to recover the child. This decision of the Court of Appeal gives reason to the General Council and the public prosecutor’s office of Nantes which evoked the interests of the child and the fact that a restitution at this age is not possible. The father immediately announced his intention to appeal.

Parents tried for refusing to have their children vaccinated

In October 2014, a couple from Yonne was summoned for “mistreatment” in front of the TGI of Auxerre for not having had her children vaccinated against tetanus, polio and diphtheria, which are compulsory in France. Without them, children, aged 15 months and 3 years, cannot be enrolled in school, daycare or nursery. The couple are considered outlaws and risk up to 30 euros in fines and two years in prison for the risks that a complete lack of vaccination can cause for the health of their children and beyond.

The case of the Baby Loup nursery

Launched in 2008, the Baby Loup crèche business ended in June 2014. The Court of Cassation confirmed the dismissal for serious misconduct of the nursery worker, dismissed in 2008, for refusing to remove her veil in the course of her work. Justice twice rejected her request to quash her dismissal, the last time in November 2013, before the Paris Court of Appeal. The decision of the Court of Cassation, fifth and final judgment, puts an end to this long-term affair. Since then, the Baby-loup crèche has moved and is in the grip of financial difficulties. However, it has obtained aid that will allow it to operate at least until 2016.

The affair of the little Marina

The Court of Cassation confirmed in October 2014 that the State was not responsible for the death of little Marina. This little girl, mistreated for years, had died at the age of 8 under the blows of her parents. The Court therefore confirmed the decision of the Tribunal d’Instance of the 2013th arrondissement of Paris, rendered in June XNUMX. Two associations for the defense of children’s rights had lodged a complaint against the State to try to have a “succession of negligence” recognized on the part of social services in the follow-up of the little girl. A report had in fact been dismissed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Le Mans, despite suspicions of mistreatment by the Marina school and an investigation by the gendarmerie. After the death of the girl, a long trial, very media, had resulted, in 2012, in the conviction of her parents to 30 years of criminal imprisonment by the Court of Assizes of Sarthe. The associations do not intend to stop on this failure and are considering an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.