FCMC 12447/2019

[2025] HKFC 28

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

MATRIMONIAL CAUSES NO. 12447 OF 2019

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J U D G M E N T

(Stay of Proceedings, Forum Non Conveniens,

Bifurcation)

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This Application

1. This is a hearing of the Respondent Wife’s (“ W ”) Summons dated 19 September 2023 for a stay of proceedings of the Petitioner Husband’s (“ H ”) Petition for divorce filed on 3 July 2018. The decree absolute was pronounced on 28 April 2021, W asks for the ongoing proceedings to be bifurcated to take place in Germany.

2. H opposes W’s application.

Parties’ background

3. Both H and W are of German origin. W has a habitual residence in Germany. In his Form E, H says he has no fixed place of abode; in subsequent affirmation, H says he uses his mother’s address in Germany but also stays at a friend’s residence in Spain, he appears to move between various European countries including Germany, Spain and Switzerland. H was born in 1973, aged around 50 at the time of hearing. W was born in 1965 in Germany, she was aged 58 at the time of the hearing.

4. W married to her first husband in 1994, he had business interest in Hong Kong. With him they have four children, L born in April 2010, and N, T and F, triplets born in August 2011. The triplets were in ill health after they were born, and continues to-date to require on-going need of medical care, they were respectively treated for some time in the US and Germany after their birth, but her first husband died in a plane crash in March 2012 even before he met the triplets. At the time of trial, W lives with her children in Dusseldorf, Germany.

5. Parties met in Hong Kong for the first time on 12 October 2012, the chronology with the W’s submission states that this was on 12-13 October 2012. It was a whirlwind romance. They then met for the second time in Cologne Germany on 17-18 November 2012, and a third time in Berlin Germany on 30 November to 1 December 2012. H and his friend visited W at her LV, US home on 20 December 2012, and proposed to her on 25 December 2012. The parties entered into a Pre-Nuptial Agreement (“ PNA ”) on 28 December 2012, which was a standard form German agreement W found online, this was witnessed by a US notary public; and the parties married on 31 December 2012. This was less than three months since the parties met.

6. Less than a year after the marriage, H and W separated on 2 October 2013, W saying that she has seen H’s “true colours”.

7. On 15 October 2013, W filed for annulment of the marriage in LV, US. This was withdrawn when H requested a pay out of €1,250,000 which W