Mr. Jack Stone is back in court, this time in a state court in Florida, seeking the return of his minor children from Japan. Mr. Stone was previously before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking a U.S. passport for his child, without the child’s mother’s consent, and seeking the return of his child using the Hague Abduction Convention. The federal court denied Mr. Stone’s request.
In the Florida state court, Mr. Stone again requests that his child be returned using the Hague Abduction Convention, and argues that his child custody case should not have been dismissed.
The Florida state court confirmed the same position as the U.S. District Court with regard to the Hague Abduction return petition – it must be filed in Japan, the location where his children now sit. Pursuant to our U.S. implementing legislation, the International Child Abduction Remedies Act, Mr. Stone must proceed in the location where the child is located at the time the petition is filed. Mr. Stone acknowledges that he attempted to secure his children’s return using the Hague Abduction Convention in Japan, but to no avail.
In addition, the District Court of Appeal of Florida’s Second District addressed the dismissal of Mr. Stone’s custody suit in Florida family court. The Florida family court dismissed Mr. Stone’s suit because he did not demonstrate that Florida was his minor child’s home state at the time he filed the custody suit. In fact, at the time he filed his suit, everyone in his family was residing in Japan, and had been for some time. Mr. Stone claims that their location in Japan was due to his wife’s abduction of their oldest child, and the youngest child’s birth in Japan. His custody filing in Florida was commenced almost one year after the family began residing in Japan. Despite Florida not being the child’s home state, the court reversed and remanded to allow Mr. Stone to present further evidence about certain proceedings that had been occurring in Japan related to the children. Mr. Stone argues that those proceedings were withdrawn and dismissed, and have the effect of Japan declining jurisdiction, and therefore, Florida could proceed to take up jurisdiction.
