Opinion ID: 199138
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Exception for Grave Risk of Physical or Psychological Harm

Text: 37 Lynn argues that Micheli should still not be returned to Mexico because she falls within the exception to return contained in article 13(b) of the Convention. 38 The wrongful taking of a child from his or her country of habitual residence normally requires the child's return. See Hague Convention, art. 12, 19 I.L.M. at 1502. Courts, however, are not bound to order the return of the child if the person, institution or other body which opposes its return establishes that . . . there is a grave risk that his or her return would expose the child to physical or psychological harm or otherwise place the child in an intolerable situation. Id. art. 13(b), 19 I.L.M. at 1502. A respondent who opposes the return of the child by asserting the article 13(b) exception has the burden of proving this exception by clear and convincing evidence. See 42 U.S.C. 11603(e)(2)(A); Walsh, 221 F.3d at 217. The article 13(b) exception is a narrow one. See 42 U.S.C. 11603(a)(4); Walsh, 221 F.3d at 217. 39 To meet her burden under the article 13(b) exception, the respondent must establish that the alleged physical or psychological harm is a great deal more than minimal. Walsh, 221 F.3d at 218. Indeed, the harm must be something greater than would normally be expected on taking a child away from one parent and passing him [or her] to another. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). Courts are not to engage in a custody determination or to address such questions as who would be the better parent in the long run. Id. 40 We previously addressed this exception to the Convention in Walsh, supra. In Walsh, we reversed the decision of the district court and held that the respondent wife had demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence that the return of her children to Ireland posed a grave risk of physical and psychological harm. See id. at 219-21. In Walsh, the husband had severely beaten his wife over the years, including when she was pregnant. Many of the beatings took place in front of her two small children, as did a beating of his older son by another marriage. The husband fled this country when charged with threatening to kill another (a neighbor), refused to return when a fugitive warrant was entered, and violated Irish court orders that he stay away from the marital residence. Id. at 209-12. We found that the district court inappropriately discounted the grave risk of physical and psychological harm to children in cases of spousal abuse; . . . failed to credit [the petitioner father's] more generalized pattern of violence, including violence directed at his own children; and . . . gave insufficient weight to [the petitioner father's] chronic disobedience of court orders. Id. at 219. Such a high quantum of risked harm barred the child's return under article 13(b). Id. 41 Here, by contrast, the district court found that the alleged instances of verbal abuse of Lynn and her older daughter Leah, and of physical abuse of Lynn, while regrettable, neither were directed at Micheli nor rose to the level of the conduct of the petitioner father in Walsh. We agree. Lynn's allegations of verbal abuse and an incident of physical shoving are distinct from the clear and long history of spousal abuse presented in Walsh. Id. at 220. Lynn has never alleged that Whallon abused Micheli, either physically or psychologically. Indeed, while the two experts who testified disagreed as to whether returning Micheli to Mexico would expose her to a grave risk of physical or psychological harm or otherwise place her in an intolerable situation, they both agreed as to the love that Whallon and Micheli have for each other as father and daughter. As to the deplorable attempt to keep Lynn and Micheli in Mexico at gunpoint, the district court found credible Whallon's denial that he ever instructed his attorney to hire the gunmen or knew that the gunmen had been hired. Furthermore, in contrast to Walsh, there is no evidence that Whallon would disregard an order of the court, whether Mexican or American. 42 Lynn argues that the district court ignored the psychological harm prong of article 13(b). That is not so. The court considered the alleged psychological harm to Micheli from the abuse and correctly found that any such harm did not to rise to the level required for sustaining an article 13(b) exception. See Walsh, 221 F.3d at 218-19. Lynn also contends that the district court ignored the harm resulting from the separation of Micheli from her half-sister Leah. Whether there is a separation is Lynn's choice. She may return to Mexico with both her daughters. We do not doubt that a separation, if any, would cause difficulty. The logic, purpose, and text of the Convention all mean that such harms are not per se the type of psychological harm contemplated by the narrow exception under article 13(b). To conclude otherwise would risk substituting a best interest of the child analysis for the analysis the Convention requires. This would undercut the Convention's presumption of return where rights of custody have been violated by wrongfully removing a child in situations where that child had a sibling who was not wrongfully removed. 11 43