Rights of Custody – Art. 3
The Supreme Court upheld the District Court’s finding that after May 1991 the custodial rights in respect of the child were actually exercised by the mother and not the father. Consequently the mother’s failure to return the child to the United States was not in breach of any rights of custody at the time of the retention. While the Georgia court had initially ordered legal custody of the child to the father, by May 1991 when the mother had nearly completed her medical treatment, the father was satisfied that the mother was capable of having custody of the child during the week. Thereafter he saw the child only during the weekends, while the mother attended to all of the child’s daily needs. The father had also begun to pay the mother maintenance for the child in terms of the Georgia court order. This arrangement had continued for nearly two years until March 1993 when the mother took the child to Israel.
