FAMILY LAW CASES

• Barzilay v. Barzilay
• Aguilera v. Alaska Juris F/V
• US v. Flores-Villar
• Stanley v. Stanley
• In re Esperanza

U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, August 04, 2008
Barzilay v. Barzilay, No. 08-1160
In an action brought by father seeking the return to Israel of the children from his marriage to mother under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, a decision to abstain under the Younger doctrine is reversed and remanded for a determination on the merits where: 1) as neither parent filed a Hague petition in state court, Hague Convention issues were not properly or fully raised in that proceeding; and 2) thus, it was an abuse of discretion to abstain. Read more...

U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, August 04, 2008
Aguilera v. Alaska Juris F/V, No. 07-35148
In the context of general maritime law and injured seamen, the circuit court rules that maintenance and cure payments are subject to withholding for child support obligations, so long as those payments constitute income under relevant state law. Read more...

U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, August 06, 2008
US v. Flores-Villar, No. 07-50445
The circuit court rejects challenges under the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment's due process clause on the basis of age and gender to two former sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which impose a five-year residence requirement, after the age of fourteen, on U.S. citizen fathers, but not on U.S. citizen mothers, before they may transmit citizenship to a child born out of wedlock abroad to a non-citizen. Read more...

Supreme Court of Delaware, August 04, 2008
Stanley v. Stanley, No. 260, 2007
In a divorce case, modification of a stipulated property division order is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) the trial court properly considered the parties' changed circumstances in deciding to reopen and revise the property division order; but 2) under federal law, husband's Social Security disability benefits may not be transferred or assigned to a former spouse in a property settlement. Read more...

California Appellate Districts, August 07, 2008
In re Esperanza, No. D051521
Orders denying petitions for modification under Welfare and Institutions Code section 388 and order terminating parental rights under section 366.26 are reversed where the juvenile court has jurisdiction to review the social services agency's denial of a criminal records exemption for abuse of discretion. Read more...