Pielage v. McConnell, 516 F.3d 1282 (11th Cir. 2008)

INCADAT legal file Hague parental abduction

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Information:

Habitual Residence – Art. 3
The mother maintained that the child was habitually resident in the Netherlands at all times. This was not disputed by either court, but the 11th Circuit noted that the child had spent 10 of his first 12 months living in Alabama.
Removal and Retention – Arts 3 and 12
The mother argued that the state court ne exeat order interfered with one of her rights of custody by preventing her from removing the child from the state court’s jurisdiction to take him to her desired place of residence–the Netherlands. The Court held however that it was not persuaded that a retention should include every breach of a parent’s rights of custody, otherwise the term ‘wrongful’ would be rendered superfluous. Furthermore, because the order did not disrupt or otherwise alter the family and social environment in which he had developed, it was not the type of “retention” that the Hague Convention was intended to remedy. The Hague Convention was meant to cover the situation where a child has been kept by another person away from the petitioner claiming rights under the Convention, not where the petitioner still retained the child but was prevented from removing him from the jurisdiction.