The children, a boy and a girl, were 7 and 8 years old at the date of the alleged wrongful removal. The parents were divorced. By a provisional decision, which became final after the removal, the competent Hungarian child welfare authority had transferred custody of both children to their grandmother.
On 22 June 1991 the mother took the children from their grandmother and brought the children to the father in Austria. On 18 September the grandmother petitioned for the return of the children. On 21 November 1991 the District Court Favoriten in Vienna refused to order the return of the children finding that such a return would place them in an intolerable situation (Article 13(1)(b)).
On 3 February 1992 the Appellate Court (Landesgericht f?r Zivilrechtssachen Wien) allowed an appeal and ordered the return of the children. The parents appealed to the Supreme Court.
