Posts
Jeremy D. Morley
An
appeal court in New York has issued an important ruling on the issue of whether
a woman who relocates to another state while she is pregnant is barred from
having a future custody case being heard in the new location.
The
Appellate Division, First Department of
New York’s Supreme Court rejected a lower Family Court's ruling that a woman's
decision to move across the country while pregnant was tantamount to "appropriation
of the child while in utero" and therefore could bar her custody case from
being heard in her new location.
The
ruling will presumably apply to international moves by pregnant women.
In
the case, Ashton v. Bode, Nov. 14,
2013, a pregnant mother living in California relocated to New York to attend
Columbia University. The Family Court referee found that the woman’s "appropriation
of the child while in utero was irresponsible" and
"reprehensible" and warranted a declination of jurisdiction in favor
of the California court on the basis that New York was an inconvenient forum. The
appellate court flatly rejected that finding, stating that, “Rather, the
mother's conduct at issue here amounts to nothing more than her decision to
relocate to New York during her pregnancy.” The appeal court also rejected “the
Referee's apparent suggestion that, prior to her relocation, the mother needed
to somehow arrange her relocation with the father with whom she had only a brief
romantic relationship.” It held that, “Putative fathers have neither the right
nor the ability to restrict a pregnant woman from her
constitutionally-protected liberty.”
