Pastén v. Velásquez

462 F. Supp. 2d 1206, 2006 WL 3063459, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78749
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Alabama
DecidedOctober 27, 2006
DocketCivil Action No. 2:06cv832-MHT
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 462 F. Supp. 2d 1206 (Pastén v. Velásquez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pastén v. Velásquez, 462 F. Supp. 2d 1206, 2006 WL 3063459, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78749 (M.D. Ala. 2006).

Opinion

[1208]*1208OPINION

MYRON H. THOMPSON, District Judge.

In this lawsuit, petitioner Oscar Manuel Reyes Pastén asks that this court require respondent Flavia Cecilia Ruiz Velásquez to return their daughter RMRV from Alabama to Chile, pursuant to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, Oct. 25, 1980, T.I.A.S. No. 11670, 1343 U.N.T.S. 89, reprinted, in 1988 WL 411501, and implemented by the International Child Abduction Remedies Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 11601— 11611. This court has jurisdiction under 42 U.S.C. § 11603 and 28 U.S.C. § 1331. At the end of a hearing held on October 11, 2006, and based on the evidence presented and arguments of counsel for the parties, the court orally granted in part Reyes’s requested relief; the court promised that a written opinion and judgment would follow. This is the promised opinion.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

RMRV was born to Reyes and Ruiz in 1998. The two were never married, and they terminated their relationship in 2000. Since then, Ruiz married an American citizen. Reyes still resides in Chile.

Ruiz lived in Chile until late 2003, when she and RMRV came to the United States, ostensibly so that Ruiz could enroll in oceanography school at Texas A & M University. Under Chilean law, Ruiz could not remove RMRV from Chile without Reyes’s permission, which he declined to give. Therefore, before leaving Chile, Ruiz sought, and a Chilean court granted, permission to bring her daughter to the United States for three years, during her enrollment in the oceanography school. However, Ruiz never attended the university; instead, sometime in 2006, she moved to Alabama. She did not notify Reyes or the Chilean court.

Upon learning that Ruiz had moved to Alabama, Reyes filed a petition in this court for the return of RMRV to Chile based on the Hague Convention. Out of concern that Ruiz would further flee with RMRV, this court immediately issued a restraining order prohibiting the removal of RMRV from this court’s jurisdiction until Reyes’s petition could be heard on the merits. At the hearing on the matter on October 11, 2006, Ruiz expressed that she intends to take RMRV, permanently, to live in Australia. She said that she had already initiated legal proceedings in Chile, seeking permission to take RMRV there.

At the end of the hearing, the court orally held that, by taking RMRV from Texas to Alabama, Ruiz had exceeded the limitation placed on her by the Chilean court and had, thereby, violated Reyes’s custody rights under the Hague Convention. The court required that Ruiz take RMRV back to Chile. However, in order to allow resolution of Ruiz’s request to the Chilean courts to take RMRV to Australia, this court gave Ruiz approximately 45 days to return RMRV to Chile. Also, out of concern that Ruiz might flee with RMRV pending resolution of her new litigation in Chile, the court required that Ruiz turn over her passport to the court and not take RMRV out of the jurisdiction of the court without its permission. As stated, the court promised that a written opinion and judgment would follow.

II. DISCUSSION

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction has the stated purpose of “protecting] children internationally from the harmful effects of their wrongful removal or retention and establishing] procedures to ensure their prompt return to the State [1209]*1209of their habitual residence, as well as to securing] protection for rights of access.” Hague Convention, introduction.

The purpose of the Convention is not to adjudicate custody rights in the State to which the child was removed, but rather “to return to the status quo before the wrongful removal or retention.” Ruiz v. Tenorio, 392 F.3d 1247, 1250 (11th Cir. 2004) (quoting Shealy v. Shealy, 295 F.3d 1117, 1121 (10th Cir.2002)). To that end, the Convention establishes, among other things, a remedy of return to the “State of habitual residence” of the child. Hague Convention, Arts. Ill, XII.

Article III of the Hague Convention sets forth the standards for determining whether a case of wrongful removal has been made out such that the child must be returned to the State of habitual residence. Hague Convention, Art. XII. That Article provides that:

“The removal or the retention of a child is to be considered wrongful where—a) it is in breach of rights of custody attributed to a person, an institution or any other body, either jointly or alone, under the law of the State in which the child was habitually resident immediately before the removal or retention; and b) at the time of removal or retention those rights were actually exercised, either jointly or alone, or would have been so exercised but for the removal or retention.”

Hague Convention, Art. III.

As this language makes clear, there are three elements to be examined by a court here. First, a court should determine where the child was habitually a resident immediately before the purportedly wrongful removal. Second, the court should determine whether the complaining party had a right of custody under that country’s law, and whether the respondent violated that right of custody by removal. Third, the court should determine whether the right was being exercised at the time of the removal or would have been exercised but for the removal.

1. Habitual Residence

Neither the Hague Convention nor its implementing legislation defines “habitual residence.” The Eleventh Circuit, however, recently considered the issue in Ruiz v. Tenorio, 392 F.3d 1247 (11th Cir. 2004). In that court’s view, the “crucial factor” in establishing habitual residence is that “the person or persons entitled to fix the place of the child’s residence” have “form[ed] a settled intention to abandon the [place] one left behind.” 392 F.3d at 1253. Under Chilean law, Reyes and Ruiz were jointly entitled to fix the child’s residence, but they did not “settle” any intention that RMRV would abandon Chile. Reyes has, at all times relevant here, strenuously objected to RMRV’s removal from Chile.

Further, whatever Ruiz’s later-developed or concealed intention, she represented to the Chilean court, and RMRV’s removal was premised on, her intention to return to Chile after a period of three years. Thus, here there was not a settled intention to abandon Chile on the part of both of those entitled to fix the place of residence. Chile, and not the United States, is therefore the habitual place of RMRV’s residence.

2. Right of Custody and Violation Of Right of Custody

Whether a right of custody exists is to be determined by reference to the law of the country of habitual residence. Hague Convention, Article 111(a).1 Under [1210]*1210the law of Chile, and under the Chilean court’s decision on RMRV’s custody, Reyes’s custody rights have been violated.

Chile grants a non-custodial parent a ne exeat

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

González v. Preston
107 F. Supp. 3d 1226 (M.D. Alabama, 2015)
Pasten v. Velasquez
462 F. Supp. 2d 1206 (M.D. Alabama, 2006)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
462 F. Supp. 2d 1206, 2006 WL 3063459, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78749, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pasten-v-velasquez-almd-2006.