Parental authority

The Supreme Court (SC) hasacquitted a father who had been sentencedfor not going to pick up his teenage daughter when she called him from a friend's house asking him to pick her up. The father, despite the insistence of his own daughter and the Civil Guard, refused and finallyit was the mother who took charge, since she was also the one who had been granted custody of the minor.

The criminal court fined the father for acrime of child abandonment(art. 226, 1 CP), considering that not complying with the daughter's request was a breach of parental duties, even though the fathershared parental authority with the mother.

The Provincial Court alsoconfirmed that sentence, based on the fact that hisrefusal had been intentional and represented neglect towards his daughter.

However, the case finally reached the SC, which sided with the father and acquitted him. The SC clarifies that in order to consider child abandonment a crime, simply refusing aisolated or occasional breach of parental duties must be a serious, persistentand genuinely endanger the child. In this case, the child was safe at a friend's house and, although her father did not want to pick her up, the mother was able to do soand there was no real risk to the child. It was also not clear what the specific obligationsof the father were at that time. The Supreme Court recalls the

principle of "minimum intervention"in Criminal Law, not every family problem should end up in criminal courts, and only if the parents' neglect of responsibilities is very serious and genuinely endangers the children, can it be considered a crime. In situations of conflict in the exercise of parental authority between parents or between either of them and minor children, our professionals will provide you with appropriate advice and defense of your interests and those of your children.