MK Family Law

The 10th Circuit affirmed the Pope v. Lunday decision on November 20, 2020.  Ms. Lunday, pregnant with twins, returned to her home of Oklahoma from Brazil.  The twins were born in Oklahoma, and shortly after, Mr. Pope filed suit under the 1980 Hague Abduction Convention, seeking the twins' return to Brazil.  The children had never been to Brazil, except in utero .  The trial court's focus was on pinpointing the twins' habitual residence.  It concluded it was the United States, and therefore denied Mr. Pope's return request on the papers. The 10th Circuit had the benefit of the Monasky opinion when it reached its decision in November, which not only discussed the habitual residence of newborns, but established the standard of review as "clear error."  Mr. Pope argued that the parents shared an intent to make Brazil the home of their twins, with Ms. Lunday taking steps towards licensure for her profession in Brazil, and the couple registering their partners...

Tatiana Akhmedova filed an ex parte request of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas , using 28 USC 1782 to seek certain evidence in support of her English divorce action.  Tatiana alleges that the English courts have ordered certain money judgments and transfers of property in her divorce action against her Husband, Farkhad Akhmedova.  She also alleges that Farkhad has failed to abide by the orders and, in fact, has transferred certain assets that the English court awarded to her, including a yacht, the M/Y Luna. In her attempts to collect on the judgments, the English court ordered Farkhad's son Temur, to produce certain electronic information and cooperate in a forensic investigation.  Needless to say, at the end of the day, Tatiana claims no one cooperated, and Tatiana is now seeking discovery from Rackspace, the email host for Great Circle, the entity that provided email and IT hosting for the M/Y Luna.  She is also asking that the court per...

On April 16, 2020, the Hague Conference on Private International Law published its newest Guide to Good Practice under the Evidence Convention .  This publication looks at the development of video-links in taking evidence overseas using the Evidence Convention.  It outlines good practices and has references to material from Contracting Parties. The Evidence Convention provides a mechanism to obtain evidence overseas between treaty partners in contemplation of judicial proceedings.  You can find more information on the Evidence Convention on the HCCH's website by clicking here .

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an opinion in In Re. Mariani (20 Misc. 152) on April 16, 2020 where it granted Lorenzo Mariani's petition under 28 U.S.C. 1782 to serve a subpoena duces tecum on Citibank, N.A. to obtain documents to use in his divorce proceeding in Florence, Italy. For a petitioner to succeed in securing discovery for his or her foreign proceeding, s/he must: 1. make the request in the federal district court where the person resides or is found (Citibank is in New York); 2. the discovery is for use in a foreign proceeding in a foreign tribunal (his divorce was pending in the courts in Florence, Italy); and 3. the request is made by a foreign international tribunal or any interested person (Mr. Mariani is an interested person in his own divorce). Mr. Mariani met these three requirements under 28 U.S.C. 1782. Meeting these three requirements leaves the federal district court free to grant the discovery request in its di...