OA006182013

This appeal came before me on 24 July 2014 when I found an error of law and I gave an extempore judgment giving my reasons. I was particularly concerned that the one good point that I had identified in the First-tier Tribunal Judge�s determination seemed to be wholly unsupported by the evidence and I set aside the decision. I was nevertheless anxious to be fair to all the parties including the Entry Clearance Officer and I gave the parties time to produce further evidence.

The terms of my summary judgement, subject to minor corrections) is set out below:

This is an appeal by a citizen of Nigeria against a decision of the First-tier Tribunal dismissing his appeal against the refusal of entry clearance to the United Kingdom as a husband. The Entry Clearance Officer was not satisfied that the appellant is in fact engaged in a subsisting marriage and the First-tier Tribunal came to the same conclusion.

This case I find illustrates the extraordinarily difficult task that sometimes faces the Upper Tribunal under the guise of determining whether or not there was an error of law. I will put the sponsor out of her misery immediately by saying that I am persuaded there is an error of law and the case has to be heard again.

I will now give my reasons. Firstly I make it plain that not all of the grounds are equally impressive. Mr Saunders summarised the appellant�s case by addressing the three points raised, and I agree with him that the first point is not made out. It was said that there was some uncertainty about the standard of proof applied by the judge but that I find is completely wrong.