Legal Question in Family Law in Tennessee
my wife took our child outside the country and refuses to bring my son home
My wife and child and I reside in Tn. My wife and I have been in the states for about 15 years, but are originally from Canada. About four months ago, my wife decided to take our child on vacation to Canada to visit her parents for two weeks. What I didn't know at the time was, she quit her 15 hour a week job before leaving, and had no intention of returning in two weeks. We are not legally separated. I have spent the last couple months begging her to bring our child home. She refuses to return, knowing that she can cause me extreme grief by keeping our child from me. I am a good father and a good man. I work 60 hour weeks to provide for my family. I have continued to put money in her bank account each week so they are taken care of while in Canada. My question is: Can she legally just keep my child in another country and away from me for no reason? Our child is just a toddler. I call there everyday to speak with him. He keeps asking when he's coming home. I had no idea my wife was going to do this. I realize she can only stay in Canada for a 6 month period, but she says she doesn't have to return to TN and can keep me from seeing our child for as long as she likes because we are married. It feels as if she kidnapped him from me.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: my wife took our child outside the country and refuses to bring my son home
I would hire an attorney and I would do it today. Your failure to do so sooner might give the appearance that you condoned her leaving the country. International child custody suits are complicated, but they are not unheard of and there is a way to handle this. Please do whatever you can to get this filed this week and ask the judge to enter an order requiring her to return the child to the states (i.e. your state) until there can be a hearing on the matter. Best of luck
Re: my wife took our child outside the country and refuses to bring my son home
You are in a tricky situation, because you are not divorced from your wife and do not have custody hearings in an ongoing marriage. To begin, I would recommend that you stop making payments to your wife's account, until she cooperates with you. It would be difficult for a Tennessee court to gain jurisdiction of her while she is in Canada, even though your home remains in Tennessee. Perhaps if you file for divorce from her, she will come back to Tennessee to defend the lawsuit -- although that is unlikely. It sounds like she is willing to let you have all of the marital assets and keep everything you own in Tennessee, because she now has a new life back in Canada. If this were me, I would (1) file for divorce and try to stack the complaint in such a way that would provoke her to return to Tennessee to defend. Then (2) with your divorce decree, have a Tennessee judge enter an order about custody. Canada may respect a foreign court's judgment concerning custody, but I have not studied this issue before. Some countries do, and other countries don't.
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