Gomez v. Fuenmayor

Plaintiff, M.N.'s mother, made several threats against M.N.'s father during a contentious custody battle in Venezuela. At issue is whether significant threats and violence directed against a parent can constitute a grave risk of harm to a child under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction through the International Child Abduction Remedies Act of 1988 (ICARA), 22 U.S.C. 9001–9011. The district court ruled that, although plaintiff had made a prima facie case for return by showing that M.N. had been wrongfully removed from Venezuela, return would be inappropriate because an exception to the Convention applied where the district court found by clear and convincing evidence that there is a grave risk that M.N.’s return to Venezuela would expose her to physical or psychological harm. The court held that the district court correctly found that the grave risk of harm exception to the Convention applied in this case. Here, although a pattern of threats and violence was not directed specifically at M.N., serious threats and violence directed against a child’s parent can, and in this case did, nevertheless pose a grave risk of harm to the child. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Gomez v. Fuenmayor" on Justia Law