Case Update (2021): in re matter of ICJ; not actually exercising rights of custody
On January 28, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington denied a Father's request to return his child to France using the Hague Abduction Convention in the case of In Re Matter of ICJ (Jones v. Fairfield) . The Father (Mr. Jones) has already appealed. While the trial judge concluded that there would be a grave risk of harm to return the minor child to France, the interesting part of this opinion is that the Court actually found that Mr. Jones was not actually exercising his rights of custody at the time of the removal, and therefore the removal was not "wrongful" under the treaty. This prong of the Petitioner's case-in-chief is often given lip-service in Hague abduction litigation, often just being assumed. The case of Friedrich v. Friedrich had addressed this question in 1996 and said, "The only acceptable solution, in the absence of a ruling from a court in the country of habitual residence, is to liberally find "exercise...