Dalmasso v. Dalmasso, 9 P.3d 551 (Kan.2000)

INCADAT legal file Hague parental abduction

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The case related to three boys aged 6 _, 5 and 4, respectively, at the date of the alleged wrongful removal. In the three years prior to the removal they had lived in France, but prior to that they had also resided in Canada and the United States.
The parents were married and had joint rights of custody. On 11 January 1999 the mother took the three boys to the United States, a younger sister was left behind with the father. On 29 January a court in Dinan, France, issued a provisional order granting custody of all four children to the father. On 12 April the mother filed for divorce in the Shawnee County Court, Kansas.
On 6 May, one day before the scheduled divorce hearing, the father informed the court that he had applied for the return of the children under the Convention. On 7 May the Kansas court ordered that a telephone conference take place between the parties. During the conference on 12 May, both parties agreed that the father had been exercising custody rights when the children were removed, and that the children’s habitual residence was in France.
In August 1999 the Kansas court concluded that the children had been wrongfully removed and that the mother had failed to establish an exception under Article 13(1)(b). It ordered her to return the children at her own expense and to pay the father’s legal costs. The mother appealed.