Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council v EKK [2025] EWCOP 42

Determination of a preliminary issue concerning the appropriate approach for deciding whether the EKK - in her eighties and with vascular dementia - has the capacity to decide on whether to marry.

EKK formed a relationship with ID, a man some 20 years younger, in 2016 or 17. There are some fears he is mis-managing her finances but she has been willing to marry for some time. She had been evicted from her home because of hoarding, had a fall and ended up in hospital which is when the LA issued this application. 

Trowell J is keen to emphasise that the judgment is not about capacity but the test to use when determining whether EKK's capacity to marry at all or to marry ID in particular [18]. He then reviews the relevant case law including Sheffield, York and NB v MI before concluding at [46]:

The approach set out in Sheffield and developed thereafter enables the right balance between the protection of the incapacitous and a restriction on paternalistic involvement of the court. P needs to have capacity to understand what marriage is. If P does have that capacity it is not for the court to evaluate the person whom they wish to marry. To do so would be an overreach of the court's role.

Read the judgment on Bailii