CASE

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Case Name

V.L. B-1572-09

INCADAT reference

HC/E/DK 1101

Court

Country

DENMARK

Name

Vestre Landsret

Level

Superior Appellate Court

States involved

Requesting State

NETHERLANDS - KINGDOM IN EUROPE

Requested State

DENMARK

Decision

Date

23 September 2009

Status

Final

Grounds

Rights of Custody - Art. 3 | Grave Risk - Art. 13(1)(b) | Objections of the Child to a Return - Art. 13(2)

Order

Appeal dismissed, return ordered

HC article(s) Considered

3 13(1)(b) 13(2)

HC article(s) Relied Upon

3

Other provisions
The Danish Act No. 793 of 27 November 1990 on International Enforcement of Custody Decisions, etc. (International Child Abduction), art 10.
Authorities | Cases referred to

-

Published in

-

SUMMARY

Summary available in EN | FR | ES

Facts

The child, a girl, was 10 at the date of the alleged wrongful removal. She was born and had lived in the Netherlands until April 2009, when her father, a Nigerian citizen, moved to Denmark. Her parents met in 1997 in the Netherlands, where the girl was born in June 1998. The parents had married in 2003 and divorced in 2008. The parents had joint rights of custody. From January 2008 the girl lived with her father. Until then she had stayed with her mother, a Dutch citizen.

In May 2008 the District Court in Breda (the Netherlands) decided that the girl should stay with her father and the mother should have visitation rights. The mother had multiple sclerosis and received treatment for depression. In December 2008 the father married a Danish woman and moved to Denmark in April 2009 with the girl.

The girl suffered from dyslexia. In May 2009 the mother issued proceedings for the return of her daughter. The Bailiff's Court ordered the return of the girl. The father appealed.

Ruling

Appeal dismissed and return ordered; the removal was wrongful and Article 13(1)(b) had not been proved to the standard required under the Convention.

Grounds

Rights of Custody - Art. 3


The mother had visitation rights and had not given her permission to the father to take the girl to Denmark. Therefore the removal was wrongful.

Grave Risk - Art. 13(1)(b)

After a conversation with the girl, the judge ruled that there was no grave risk of harm to the girl of returning to the Netherlands.

The girl had daily contact with her mother and had seen her on a regular basis before the wrongful removal. Preparations had also been made for the girl's return to the Netherlands, taking her dyslexia problems into account.

Objections of the Child to a Return - Art. 13(2)

The judge ruled that there was no proof that the girl would resist a return to the Netherlands.

Author of the summary: Maria Jeppesen