MK Family Law

The Superior Court of Pennsylvania, in JS v. RSS , addressed an issue of an international relocation and a U.S. court's subject matter jurisdiction over a custody modification action.  The facts are long and twisted, but the salient ones are: the parents divorced in 2015.  The father sought custody of their child with a request to relocate him to Hungary in November 2015.  The mother agreed to the father's custody of the child and the child's relocation to Hungary, believing the father was entering a witness protection program. The father didn't move to Hungary, and the parties actually threw the terms of their custody agreement out the window.  The mother had significant access to the child.  Apparently, however, the father did relocate the child to Hungary in July 2016, unbeknownst to mother.  The mother did not see the child after July 2016, but the father still traveled to Pennsylvania, and remained sexually intimate with the mother, even though he had ...

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals addressed a recent argument made numerous times before in virtually every U.S. state: if a couple is married overseas, particularly in a religious marriage ceremony, then the couple must also divorce overseas.  In the case of Melki v. Melki, the couple married in an Orthodox Christian ceremony in Lebanon.   The couple then began residing in Montgomery County, Maryland and ultimately the Wife filed for divorce years later in Maryland.  Dr. Melki, the Husband, fought the divorce, and among his numerous arguments was that Lebanon was the only appropriate jurisdiction that could divorce the couple ( i.e ., that Maryland has no subject matter jurisdiction).   As the Maryland COSA indicated,  "'[A]n essential element of the judicial power to grant a divorce, or jurisdiction,' is that one spouse be domiciled within the state at the time the complaint was filed. ...  A court must have jurisdiction of the res, or the ...

Dr. Hil Rizvi appeals a trial court order dismissing his complaint against a Massachusetts social service agency, a Maryland social service agency, and two separate Swiss governmental agencies.  The Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal on September 25, 2020 .   Rizvi is the father of two daughters who reside in Switzerland.  They were taken to Switzerland by their mother, Rizvi's estranged wife.  One of his two daughters received treatment, first in Maryland, and now in Switzerland, for an eating disorder.  Dr. Rizvi disagrees with the treatment.  This daughter did temporarily reside with Dr. Rizvi in Massachusetts in 2016, but pursuant to an emergency temporary custody order, the child was returned to Switzerland in the custody of her mother.  This federal lawsuit was filed by Dr. Rizvi who alleges that the four governmental agencies violated his parental rights.  He further argued that the Maryland and Massachusetts agencie...

Thamilselvan v. Thamilselvan reads like a law school exam question.  The spouses, both Indian citizens had lived in Michigan with their daughter since 2000.  They owned a house.  In December 2017, the Wife and daughter left the marital home.  In February 2018, the Wife sought a divorce in Michigan, alleging abuse.  The Husband then petitioned the Indian Family Court for "restoration of his conjugal rights" in an attempt to reconcile.  He also asked for an injunction to prevent the Wife from continuing with her divorce action in Michigan.  Despite her fighting the injunction, it was granted.  The Husband then sought to amend his Answer in the Michigan divorce suit claiming he erroneously admitted the spouses were residents of Michigan.  The court rejected the amendment.  He also sought to dismiss the Michigan divorce suit, first using a comity argument in an attempt to recognize the Indian injunction, and then, when his first motion was ...

In this post, I am returning to April 2, 2020, where a Massachusetts court, in the Adoption of Daphne , vacated a trial court's order dismissing a petition to adopt a minor child born in Massachusetts to a gestational surrogate.   The child was the product of in-vitro fertilization.  The genetic father of the child and his partner entered into a gestational carrier agreement with the surrogate in Massachusetts.  The two men selected an egg from a donor, fertilized it with the sperm of the genetic father and implanted it into the surrogate who carried the child to term in Massachusetts.  The child's birth certificate lists the genetic father and the birth Mother (surrogate) as parents, and the two intended to proceed with a post-birth adoption to terminate the mother's rights, and establish the genetic father as the sole parent.   In April 2018, the mother signed the "surrender form" under Massachusetts law.  The father, his partner, and the child ...

On July 6, 2020, the Court of Appeal of the State of California issued an opinion in the case of L.A. Cnty. Dep't of Children & Family Servs. v. MH .  At issue, in this case, is a minor child who had been in a shelter in Mexico, and was then transferred to his maternal grandmother in California.  The child's parents were both found unfit to care for the child, and the child had been living in deplorable conditions with the parents in Mexico.  The child is a U.S. national (the mother is American), and upon learning of the child's citizenship, the U.S. consulate was contacted, and arrangements were made to transfer the child as an unaccompanied minor to the United States.  The juvenile court in California issued a custody order on August 6, 2019 declaring the child a dependent of the court and ordering the child's placement with his maternal grandmother. The California court never contacted the Mexican court.  The Father timely appealed, arguing a lack of juri...

The Derbez v. Derbez divorce matter reminds lawyers that they must be familiar with their jurisdiction’s rules, procedures, and deadlines, and understand the complexity of the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments.  Mr. Derbez pursued a divorce from his wife in Mexico, where he resided, in 2015.  Mrs. Derbez fought this divorce proceeding, arguing a lack of jurisdiction, but she lost.  The divorce case apparently proceeded and the parties were divorced on April 19, 2016.  On August 2, 2016, Mrs. Derbez, who refused to recognize the Mexican divorce decree, filed a petition for divorce in Texas, where she resided. After some significant delays, the court finally held a merits-hearing on the divorce request on February 20, 2018.   At this hearing, Mrs. Derbez testified that Mr. Derbez agreed to a variety of financial payments to her.  When Mr. Derbez testified through an interpreter, he confirmed that he understood and agreed to what Mrs. Derbez sa...

The Superior Court of Pennsylvania consolidated two appeals in the case of   Ileiwat v. Labadi (2020 PA Super 132 (2020) ) and, on June 3, 2020, rejected the Husband’s argument that the Pennsylvania court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to order the division of the parties’ property or award support to the Wife because neither party was domiciled in Pennsylvania for the requisite period of time prior to Wife’s initiation of the PA divorce suit. The parties, both dual-Jordanian-US nationals, had been living in Saudi Arabia for the Husband’s work since 2003. In 2014, the Husband took a 10-month project in Philadelphia.  The family purchased a condo and their children moved to the United States.  Approximately six months later, the family traveled to Saudi Arabia to renew their visas.  While the Husband and children returned to Philadelphia in January 2015, the Wife detoured to their native Jordan to visit family.  While she was in Jordan, the Husband calle...

The Alobaid v. Khan (  No. 3D19-2128, 3rd District Court of Appeal State of Florida)  case addressed the father’s (Mr. Alobaid) argument that Florida lacked personal jurisdiction and subject matter jurisdiction to issue a domestic violence injunction that included a temporary custody arrangement.  On May 27, 2020, the court affirmed and upheld the trial court’s issuance of the temporary domestic violence injunction that also gave the father only supervised access to the parties’ minor child in Florida. This international couple had a long-distance marriage after they met in college in Florida and wed in 2011, with Mr. Alobaid living in his home of Kuwait and Ms. Khan residing in her home of Florida.  Their child was born in Florida in January 2018.  In November 2018, Ms. Khan filed a petition for domestic violence injunction against Mr. Alobaid.  In her petition, she alleged four specific incidents of physical violence by Mr. Alobaid towards her, with...