Lozano v. Alvarez, 697 F.3d 41 (2nd Cir. 2012)

INCADAT legal file Hague parental abduction

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Information:

The proceedings concerned a child born in October 2005 to Colombian parents who had met and lived together in London. The parents never married.
At trial, the District Court found that the father had mistreated the mother in some way and that the child had been exposed to, and negatively affected by, the problems in the parents’ relationship.
On 19 November 2008, after visiting her sister in New York, the mother left the family home with the child. Mother and child resided in a women’s shelter for seven months.
In early July 2009, mother and child travelled to New York. They had permission to stay for 90 days. They stayed with the mother’s sister and her family.
The father issued court proceedings in the United Kingdom.
In February 2010, the child was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
On 15 March 2010, the father filed a return application with the Central Authority for England and Wales.
On 10 November 2010, the father filed his return petition in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
On 28 April 2011, the trial court denied the petition, giving its written opinion on 22 August, see In re Lozano, 809 F. Supp. 2d 197, 203 (S.D.N.Y. 2011). The trial court found that the removal of the child was wrongful but that the child had become settled in her new environment. The trial court rejected the mother’s second argument that the child would face a grave risk of harm if returned.
On 27 May 2011, the father filed a notice of appeal.
On 20 August 2012, the United States Department of State submitted a memorandum brief as amicus curiae recommending that the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit find that equitable tolling did not apply to the one-year period under Article 12 of the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention.