Important decision
If law enforcement authorities seize property that, based on credible evidence, is used to fulfill a child support obligation, they must also take the best interests of the child into account when making their decision. The Constitutional Court emphasized this in its ruling, Case No. II. ÚS 1642/26, in which it overturned a regional court’s decision that had failed to address the impact of the seizure on two minor children.
The case involved a car that a woman had received from the father of her children as fulfillment of his child support obligation. The man was subsequently charged with particularly serious fraud, and the car was seized during the criminal proceedings and later sold for 573,000 crowns. The mother requested the release of this amount, arguing that the funds were intended for the children and that their freezing had a serious impact on the family’s financial situation. The police rejected the request, and the regional court dismissed her complaint. According to the Constitutional Court, however, there was strong evidence that the car did in fact serve as child support, in part because the children’s claim had also been upheld by civil courts.
The Constitutional Court did not state that the children’s interests must automatically outweigh the need to secure assets, for example, to satisfy the claims of the injured parties in the future. However, the authorities must specifically determine what proportion of the funds intended for the children the seized property represents and what impact its unavailability has on their living conditions, and only then weigh the two interests against each other. The ruling thus confirms that the principle of the best interests of the child applies even outside of custody proceedings if a criminal decision may directly affect the child’s material well-being. The case must now be reconsidered by the Regional Court in České Budějovice.
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