Opinion ID: 6328793
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: I.C. was nine years old.

Text: In December 2016, J.C.C. and L.C. obtained a mutual divorce. At the time, both lived in El Salvador. L.C. testified that J.C.C. had been violent toward her during their marriage. Pursuant to the divorce, the parties agreed that J.C.C. would maintain physical custody of the children and L.C. would pay child support and have open visitation rights. In 2017, L.C. moved to the United States. 1 Oct. 25, 1980, T.I.A.S. No. 11,670, S. Treaty Doc. No. 99–11. 2 I.M.C. is now sixteen years old and has aged out of the Hague Convention. Hague Convention, art. 4. Both parties agree that L.C.’s appeal as to I.M.C. is now moot. 2 On October 22, 2018, J.C.C. signed a notarized travel authorization allowing the children to visit L.C. in the United States over their school break. The children arrived in the United States on October 31, 2018 and were scheduled to return to El Salvador on January 21, 2019. L.C. alleges that the children informed her that J.C.C. had physically abused them. In January 2019, L.C. called J.C.C. to inform him that she would not return the children. J.C.C. travelled to the United States to convince L.C. to return the children. After L.C. refused, J.C.C. filed a petition under the Hague Convention with the Central Authority in El Salvador on March 5, 2019. Between the time J.C.C. filed his petition in El Salvador and this lawsuit, J.C.C. continued to visit the children in the United States, and the children often stayed with him on these visits. J.C.C. filed this lawsuit in the District of New Jersey. The District Court held an evidentiary hearing and heard testimony from six witnesses: four called by L.C. (L.C., L.C.’s boyfriend, L.C.’s attorney, and I.M.C.’s counselor), and two called by J.C.C. (J.C.C. and his attorney). The court, however, declined to hear testimony from the children on the ground that “it would have been redundant, needlessly harmful to the [c]hildren, and potentially influenced by [L.C.].” Appendix (“App.”) 8a. Following the hearing, the District Court granted J.C.C.’s petition to return the children to El Salvador. The District Court held that J.C.C. had established a prima facie case under the Hague Convention and that L.C. had not sufficiently established an affirmative defense or exception. L.C. timely appealed. 3