Opinion ID: 3066108
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Parent 1 and Parent 2 live in Country A.

Text: They decide together that Parent 2 and the children will visit Country B for a predetermined amount of time, returning to Country A after the visit. After arriving in Country B, Parent 2 decides to extend his time there indefinitely and to keep the children with him. Parent 1 petitions for return of the children, arguing that they had not acquired habitual residence in Country B. Very few cases arising under the Convention feature shuttle custody. In shuttle custody situations, Parent 1 and Parent 2 agree to split custody between two countries, shuttling the children between the countries on a regular basis. Steve and Blanca decided the children would split time between countries before their relationship soured, and the children were shuttled more frequently than in any other cases. Blanca’s and Steve’s residences, as of the time of the petition, are in two different countries, but they are only around ten miles apart, by far the closest of any two parents in all of the habitual residence cases brought under the treaty worldwide. The only U.S. court to entertain the possibility that a child had alternating habitual residences was a district court in New York. In Brooke v. Willis, a court-ordered custody arrangement dictated that a child spend fifty percent of her VALENZUELA V. MICHEL 11 time in the United States and the other fifty percent in England. 907 F. Supp. 57 (S.D.N.Y. 1995). After a fall semester in California, the mother retained the child in California in breach of the agreement. The father, in England, filed a petition under the Convention. The court ruled that the child was habitually resident in England at the time of her retention, with the caveat that “it is arguable that [the child] is also a habitual resident of the United States under the Convention. However, for purposes of this petition it is only crucial to determine if England can be considered [her] habitual residence.” Id. at 61 n.2. No other U.S. court has been faced with shuttle custody under the Convention. The closest fact pattern to the one before us is from a case decided by the High Court of Northern Ireland. In In re C.L. (a minor), a child shuttled between Belfast and Dublin, a distance of 105 miles. After acknowledging that the fact pattern is “unusual if not unique,” the court found that when the child moved between his parents “on a weekly basis, he was habitually resident in whichever jurisdiction he was