Naoteru Tsuruta v. Sarah Tsuruta, No. 22-3014 (8th Cir. 2023)
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In October 2021, Defendant flew from Japan to Missouri with her and Plaintiff’s child, L.T. In March 2022, Plaintiff filed a petition for the return of their child under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (“Hague Convention”) to have L.T. returned to Japan. The district court found L.T. was “at home” in Japan before Defendant removed the child to the United States. The district court granted Plaintiff’s petition to have L.T. returned to Japan. Defendant appealed arguing Japan cannot be L.T.’s habitual residence because Sarah was coerced into living in Japan and therefore did not intend to make Japan L.T.’s home.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed. The court held that there is no evidence of physical abuse, violence, or threats of violence in this case. Additionally, having considered the testimony and having reviewed the text message exchanges between the parties, the court did not find evidence of the type of verbal abuse or controlling behavior that would suggest that Defendant was coerced or forced into staying in Japan. Therefore, Defendant’s coercion argument on appeal is inconsistent with the district court’s factual findings, which are not clearly erroneous.
Court Description: [Melloy, Author, with Smith, Chief Judge, and Erickson, Circuit Judge] Civil case - Hague Convention. The district court did not clearly err in finding that the child in question was "at home" in Japan before defendant removed the child to the U.S. and the court did not err in ordering the child returned to Japan; even assuming the court could consider defendant's argument, raised for the first time on appeal, that plaintiff had "unclean hands" because of outstanding bench warrants for failure to pay child support, it is far from certain that the unclean hands doctrine should apply to petitions under the Hague Convention, and given the factual record and the lack of any connection between plaintiff's alleged improper conduct and this case, this is not the time to decide whether the doctrine applies to Hague Convention cases.
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