Alessandro Gravante and his Team successfully return Children retained by their mother in Italy to their Father in the US

Alessandro Gravante, senior partner, together with senior associates Nicoletta Neglia and Alessia Federica Arbustini from the family team have successfully assisted a US father before the Juvenile Court of Sassari, Sardinia, in obtaining the return of his two children to their home in California. Our client’s two children had been unlawfully retained in Italy by their Italian mother during the course of a visit.

The parents had agreed for that the children were to spend one year of schooling in Italy with in the care of their mother. Unfortunately, the mother then refused to return the children at the end of the school year and subsequently lodged a divorce petition in the US.

The father instructed Giambrone’s family law team to apply to the Italian Juvenile Court to obtain an order for the return of the children to California and despite the fact that the parents had not drawn up and signed a written agreement relating to the agreement for the children of the marriage to spend a year in Italy being educated following which they would be returned, Giambrone’s family lawyers have successfully demonstrated the agreement by providing evidence to the Court using the mother’s social media posts which made it clear that the agreement was for the children to spend only one year in Italy and then to return to California.

The court also interviewed the 11-year-old daughter and found that her preference to remain in Italy was mainly linked to the beauty of the sea and the tranquillity of the locations. The Court, after some consideration, decided that the reasons were only superficial elements and therefore were not sufficient to constitute a justifiable reason for the refusal to return, in accordance with art. 13 of the 1980 Hague Convention.

Finally, the Court agreed with the arguments put forward by Giambrone’s lawyers on behalf of our client, the applicant, that the one-year period provided by art. 12 par. 1 of the 1980 Hague Convention starts from the date on which the children were supposed to return to the habitual residence and not – as argued by the mother – from the day when the children moved to Italy.

As a consequence, the Juvenile Court upheld our client’s request that the children should be returned to California, recognising that the children were habitually resident in California and had been unlawfully retained in Italy by the mother.

The Court therefore ordered the immediate return of the children to California.

Alessandro Gravante and the family team have extensive experience in successfully managing cross-border family law matters in a range of jurisdictions. 

For more information about assistance with parental child abduction please contact us at clientservices@giambronelaw.com or click here.