U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Review International Custody Case

October 19, 2012

U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Review International Custody Case

Disputes over child custody can have a significant impact on children as well as their parents, even when the case is resolved based on a negotiated solution by a couple who will live near each other after divorce. When a family court must resolve an international child custody dispute based on one parent's overseas relocation due to a job opportunity or other circumstances, the case can lead to complex legal issues and protracted appeals.

The United States Supreme Court recently decided to review a case involving the fate of the daughter of an American father and a Scottish mother. The mother had met and married the father while he was stationed in Germany with the U.S. Army, lived alone with the child in Scotland while he was deployed in Afghanistan, and later moved with him to Alabama.

In 2010, the father filed for divorce, based in part on allegations that his wife had threatened to take his daughter out of the country and not allow him to see her. Later that year and before the divorce was resolved, the mother was deported from the U.S. due to an expired visa discovered when she was arrested for a domestic violence incident involving intoxication and allegations that she threatened her husband with a knife.

Soon after she was deported, the mother filed an action in U.S. District Court to have her daughter returned to Scotland pursuant to The Hague Convention and International Child Abduction Act and the International Child Abduction Remedies Act. The court determined that Scotland was the girl's habitual residence and allowed the mother to take her out of the country.

The father appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, but his appeal was dismissed as moot because the child had already returned to Scotland. The father appealed this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court has agreed to resolve a split among U.S Circuits on the issue of whether a child's return to a country of habitual residence makes further legal proceedings moot.

In essence, the mother's maneuvers in this case effectively eliminated the father's future options for legal recourse, despite the fact that the girl had lived with him exclusively for nearly a year after the mother's deportation and his unaltered legal and physical custody rights regarding his daughter. Family law attorneys across the country who handle international custody disputes will await the U.S. Supreme Court's holding in this case with keen interest.

Article provided by DuBois Cary Law Group, PLLC
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