Government Contracting

The Family Law and Private Clients practice at Miles & Stockbridge won a significant 9th Circuit published appeal on August 31, 2021. Miles & Stockbridge Principals Stephen Cullen and Kelly Powers represented a United States citizen in a case involving the Hague Convention of the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

The client had been living in Germany with her husband, a dual citizen of Romania and the United States, and their two minor children while her husband worked as a contractor for the United States government. Our client left her husband in Germany and returned with her children to Arizona, where they have resided for the last two years.

The father filed a Petition for Return of Children to Germany, which was granted by the district court. Cullen and Powers became involved at that point on the appeal because the district court had found the repatriation of the minor children to Germany posed a grave risk of psychological harm if in the father’s custody. It ordered an alternative remedy that the children be transferred back to Germany in their mother’s care until the German court makes a custody decision.

On appeal, the 9th Circuit held that such alternative remedies are non-starters unless there is “a high likelihood of performance through supportive reinforcements.” And, in a matter of first impression, the appeal court established a broad range of tests for alternative remedies that are acceptable going forward.