Opinion ID: 406170
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Cause of Action and the Claim for Damages

Text: 11 With respect to plaintiff's cause of action and his claim for monetary damages, we see no bar to the exercise of federal diversity jurisdiction in this case. In a recent decision, the Fourth Circuit recognized the existence of federal diversity jurisdiction in a tort suit arising out of an alleged abduction by one parent of a child in the custody of the other parent. Wasserman v. Wasserman, 671 F.2d 832. We fully support the reasoning of that decision. A federal court is entirely competent, in this case as much as any other, to determine traditional tort issues such as the existence of a legal duty, the breach of that duty, and the damages flowing from that breach. Although the existence of a legal duty in this case may depend in whole or in part on the validity and effect of the various state court decrees in existence at the time of the alleged tort, the task of determining such validity and effect is also not beyond the competence of the federal courts. See id.; Keating v. Keating, 542 F.2d 910 (4th Cir. 1976).