Child Abduction

• Author: International Law Group

Lionel and Bettina Bekier married in France in 1990. Their only son, Jonathan, was born in France and became the subject of a custody battle between the parents upon their divorce in 1994. The French divorce decree awarded temporary physical custody to Lionel. While the final custody determination was pending in France, Lionel, with Bettina's consent, took Jonathan to Israel. While they were in Israel, the Rabbinical Court of Tel Aviv gave custody to Lionel. In 1995, Bettina took Jonathan to France and later to New York and South Florida.

For several years, Lionel did not know Jonathan's whereabouts. In 1998, Lionel decided to invoke the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction [October 25, 1980, T.I.A.S. No. 11670, 19 I.L.M. 1501, codified at 42 U.S.C. Section 11601]. Israel and the U.S. are parties to the Convention. In 1999, a private investigator located Bettina and Jonathan in South Florida. Lionel then filed a petition in a Florida federal court asking for the child's return to Israel under the Convention and 42 U.S.C. Section 11601.

The U.S. district court found that Bettina had wrongfully removed Jonathan from his habitual residence in Israel and ordered the child to be given to Lionel for return to Israel. Bettina filed a timely appeal but failed to post the required $100,000 bond. A few months later, Lionel took Jonathan back to Israel. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit considers Bettina's appeal moot. Under the mootness doctrine, if an event occurs during the pendency of an appeal that makes it impossible for the court to grant any effective relief to the prevailing party, the court has to dismiss the appeal.

The Court points out that the limited purpose of the Hague Convention is to...