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October 11th, 2005

"US-International Custody Laws Tested in Delaware"

The fate of a 6-year-old boy living in Delaware could set a precedent for how US-international divorce custody cases are fought and won. A custody battle between the boy’s parents, Henry and Jody Baxter, recently ended with the Philadelphia US 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the boy must be returned to his father in Australia. This decision followed another by Delaware US District Judge Joseph Farnan Jr. that said the boy could remain in the US living with his mother and her boyfriend.

The findings of the Philadelphia Court said that because of The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, an agreement between the United States and 50 other countries, the boy must be returned. The decision is controversial because no precedent has been set in international child custody disputes between states.

In this particular case, 43-year-old Delaware native Jody Baxter returned back to Delaware after living in Australia for most of the past 18 years. The move back to the US was supposed to be a temporary vacation, according to husband Henry Baxter. While in Delaware Jody Baxter met another man, began a relationship with him, and told her husband she wanted a divorce.

Henry Baxter then filed a US federal court action asking for his son to be sent back to Australia. Jody Baxter and her son had bought one-way air tickets to Delaware and the wife had long been complaining of unfair living conditions. The couple had been living in the harsh Australian Outback for most of their relationship.

The decision does not grant custody to Mr. Baxter, rather it allows for the custody dispute to be settled in Australia, the man’s home country and where he met and married his wife.