Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 29

Summary: - Assessment of the existence of the conditions for a female custodian’s entitlement to custody or the grounds for depriving her of it. A matter of fact. The condition for this. - The presence, in the possession of the female custodian—the respondent—of papers containing telephone numbers of numerous persons and emails does not in itself constitute evidence of her unfitness for custody. Disputing this: argument concerning the power of the court hearing the merits to understand the facts of the case and assess its evidence. Impermissible before the Court of Cassation. Rule: It is established—in the jurisprudence of this Court, which has consistently held—that assessment of the existence of the conditions for a female custodian’s entitlement to custody or the grounds for depriving her of it is a matter exclusively for the court hearing the merits, without review, so long as it bases its ruling on sound reasons leading to the conclusion it reached. That being so, the first-instance judgment, upheld by the challenged judgment in this regard, based its ruling confirming the respondent’s custody of her aforementioned children on what it inferred from the case papers and documents: that she satisfied the conditions for entitlement to custody and that the papers disclosed nothing preventing her from exercising it, particularly since the presence in the respondent’s possession of papers containing telephone numbers of numerous persons and emails does not in itself constitute evidence of her unfitness for custody. These are sound reasons grounded in the papers, contain an implicit response to contrary assertions, and suffice to support the judgment’s ruling. Accordingly, what the appellant raises in this regard is no more than argument concerning the power of the court hearing the merits to understand the facts of the case and assess the evidence, which may not be advanced before the Court of Cassation. Consequently, the ground of challenge is without basis.