Child abduction

Pages27-33
27
international law update Volume 21, January–March 2015
© 2015 International Law Group, LLC. All rights reserved. ISSN 1089-5450, ISSN 1943-1287 (on-line) | www.internationallawupdate.com
CHILD ABDUCTION
Second Circuit addresses novel
issues under Hague Child Abduction
Convention, including whether
separating a child from autism therapy is
sufficiently grave to trigger exceptions
to the general rule that children
wrongfully removed or retained
should be returned to their country of
habitual residence
e case Ermini v. Vittori arose out of the
marital dissolution of an Italian couple. e couple
moved to the United States with their two sons and
signed a one-year lease on a New York apartment
in August 2011 after they were unable to secure
adequate treatment in Italy for their autistic son
Daniele. ey enrolled Daniele in a Comprehensive
Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling
(“CABAS”) program in Stony Point, New York.
e program oered personalized instruction with
an educational team, including a special educational
teacher, an occupational therapist, a speech and
language therapist, several classroom assistants, and
a full-time one-on-one teaching assistant. Daniele’s
mother, Viviana Vittori (Vittori), instituted divorce
proceedings against Daniele’s father, Emiliano Ermini
(Ermini) in April 2012 after numerous incidences
of domestic abuse. Ermini had remained employed
in Italy and traveled between Italy and the United
States to visit his family, but petitioned the district
court during the divorce proceedings and ensuing
custody dispute to have both children returned to
Italy pursuant to the Hague Convention on the
Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
Specically, Ermini petitioned the return of his two
sons to Italy alleging that the two boys who were
Italian citizens had been retained in the United States
by Vittori, also an Italian citizen without Ermini’s
consent. After a trial, the district court denied the
petition without prejudice to renewal if Daniele
was not able to continue with his current CABAS
program. e Italian court system issued a nal order
requiring the return of the children to Italy.
Daniele was diagnosed with autism on March
14, 2008, when he was approximately two years
old. Both parents were committed to helping
Daniele and took him to several doctors in Italy as
well as abroad to Scotland for medical treatment.
When their own resources were inadequate to pay
for the treatments, they solicited donations through
a website dedicated to Daniele. Dr. Antonucci was
Daniele’s primary treating professional in Italy
from December 2008 until May 2010. One of the
treatments that Dr. Antonucci recommended was
hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which was eventually
administered in a hyperbaric chamber installed in
the family home in Italy. Daniele’s support teacher
in Italy was not familiar with any specic techniques
for treating autistic children. On their own initiative,
the parents attended training in Applied Behavioral
Analysis (“ABA”) techniques at a private institution.
With permission from Daniele’s school principal,
Vittori spent two hours daily at Daniele’s school
instructing the support teacher in ABA techniques.
Both parents consulted another physician in Italy,
Dr. Claudia Lerz, to develop an ABA treatment
plan for Daniele. According to Vittori’s expert, Dr.
Fiorile, ABA therapy is the most common treatment
for children with autism in the United States and
it can have an enormous impact on the life of an
autistic child. Dr. Antonucci also endorsed ABA
treatment. Vittori estimated that she personally
provided 70-80% of Daniele’s thirty to forty weekly
hours of ABA treatment while the family was living
in Italy. Professional ABA treatment would have
been preferable but very expensive. e Italian
national health care system covered 90 minutes a
week of psycho-motility therapy for the rst year
after Daniele’s autism diagnosis, with an extra 90
minutes of speech therapy during the second year.
However, it did not cover other types of treatment
or therapy. Both parents were dissatised with the
options for Daniele’s schooling and therapy in Italy
as they did not see results in his developmental
progress. ey began to look elsewhere for
treatment options. In Spring 2010, the parents met
Dr. Giuseppina Feingold in Italy. Dr. Feingold was
an Italian-speaking pediatrician with a practice in
Suern, New York specializing in children with

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