The children, two boys, were 6 and 8 at the date of the alleged wrongful removal. They had spent all of their lives in Hungary. The parents were divorced, the mother having been awarded custody, the father access.
On 11 November 1990 the mother took the boys to the United States to join her new husband. She told the boys’ father that she intended to be away until June 1991. It was however her intention to remain in the United States permanently.
On 4 October 1991 the Probate Court judge ruled that the Convention did not mandate the return of children for the purpose of access.
The father appealed.
