Opinion ID: 2223926
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Other Alternatives.

Text: There obviously are several remedies available to a victimized parent. Each of them, including the tort claim, however, has its limitations. (A tort claim will obviously furnish little deterrent or likelihood of recovery in the case of an impecunious defendant.) Concerning the use of alternative remedies in such cases, see Note Tortious Interference with Custody, supra, 68 Iowa L.Rev. at 500-15. The case now before us illustrates how the tort claim can, more effectively than any of the alternative sanctions, serve both to prevent child-snatching and to pick up the pieces if it does occur. A. The UCCJA. The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act, Iowa Code chapter 598A, is basically just thata jurisdiction act. It provides no compensation for interference with custody in any case. In the present case, it would not even allow recovery of expenses, because the custody decree is not one of another state. See Iowa Code § 598A.15. Because the uniform act provides no compensation for the plaintiff, it provides little or no deterrent to the defendant. Professor Sanford Katz, chairman of the Family Law Section of the American Bar Association and editor-in-chief of the Family Law Quarterly, has written extensively on the UCCJA. He notes the widespread problem of child-snatching (estimated at 25,000 to 100,000 per year) and discusses the inability of the UCCJA alone to deal with the problem. He points out that this Act is largely jurisdiction-oriented, not remedy-oriented and concludes: The parent entitled to custody of a child, but unlawfully deprived of it by the noncustodial parent, must still [after adoption of the UCCJA] seek relief in a number of traditional, well established methods. Katz, Legal Remedies for Child Snatching, 15 Fam.L.Q. 103, 105 (1981). A tort suit is one of the traditional remedies suggested. Id. In another publication, Prof. Katz says that [a]nother lack of force [in the UCCJA] is that its provisions are not tied to any specific enforcement provisions, sanctions or parent-oriented remedies and repeats his suggestion that more direct sanctions such as criminal prosecution or tort suits are needed. Katz, Child Snatching: The Legal Response to the Abduction of Children, at 33 (1981). Patricia M. Hoff, director of the Child Custody Project, National Legal Resource Center for Child Advocacy and Protection of the American Bar Association, has also noted the ineffectiveness of the UCCJA in furnishing a complete remedy: Perhaps more so than other existing remedies in parental kidnapping cases, the child snatching tort suit holds great promise for compensating the victim parent to the full extent of his or her damages. While the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act makes it possible for the person entitled to custody or visitation to recover his or her attorneys' fees, court costs, and necessary travel and related expenses from the person violating the decree, a tort action ultimately expands both the nature and the amount of the recovery, and enlarges the number of potential defendants. All damages suffered by the plaintiff as a consequence of the wrongful conduct may be recovered in a tort action, including punitive damages in some instances and any person who assists the defendant-parent in the abduction, retention, or concealment of the child may conceivably be held liable. P. Hoff, Interstate Child Custody Disputes and Parental Kidnapping: Policy, Practice and Law, at 14-1 (1982). B. The kidnapping alternatives. Other alternatives include prosecutions under federal and state kidnapping statutes. A kidnapping prosecution, however, provides for no recovery of expenses or compensation for the victimized parent. There is another problem more subtle, but real nevertheless: Cases with domestic overtones occupy a position of low priority with law enforcement personnel and prosecutors. In fact, this reality appears to be widely observed. See Justice Dep't. Scored for Flouting Parental Kidnapping Act's Mandate, 7 Fam.L.Rep. (BNA) 2739-42 (Oct. 6, 1981). In Iowa, child-snatching by a parent is only a misdemeanor, unless the child is removed from the state, in which case it is a felony. Iowa Code § 710.6. If the child is removed from the state, the chances of extradition are slim, again because of the domestic overtones of the cases and the inherent inertia of law enforcement personnel in dealing with them. C. The contempt alternative. The usefulness of a contempt action is doubtful. It would provide no recovery of expenses or compensation, and if the party has left the state, any sanctions which are imposed will be of no effect. Further, it provides no basis for extradition. The weaknesses of the contempt alternative are noted in Katz, Legal Remedies for Child Snatching, supra, at 117-22, and in Katz, Child Snatching, supra, at 103-06. See also P. Hoff, Interstate Child Custody Disputes and Parental Kidnapping: Policy, Practice and Law, supra, at 14-1. One authority summarizes the advantages of the tort suit over the other alternatives: A tort suit will be more likely to effect a speedy return of the child; it will result in better cooperation by potential third-party defendants seeking to avoid the suit; potential punitive damages will serve as an additional deterrent; and increased knowledge of a child's whereabouts will result through the broad scope of civil-case discovery. Hoff, id. at 14-1. We conclude that we should follow the majority of jurisdictions by recognizing and applying section 700 of the Restatement. The district court ruling must therefore be reversed, and the case remanded for further proceedings. REVERSED AND REMANDED.