Case Update (30 Oct 2025): Xamplas v. Xamplas; court did not err in concluding child was settled in Maine, and was not to be returned to Greece

The parties are parents to a child who was born in Australia in 2020 to a Greek Australian Father and a US citizen Mother. The family relocated to Greece in December 2021. In November 2022, the couple traveled to Maine, on round-trip airfare, “for six or seven weeks.” The Petitioner Father testified that it was a vacation. The Respondent Mother indicated she was unsure whether she would return to Greece. On January 4, 2023, the day before their return flights, the Mother told the Father that she and the child would not be returning with him to Greece. He flew back to Greece on his own. The child had family and support services in Maine, and was receiving therapy each day for her speech and behavioral development. On July 17, 2023, the Mother filed for divorce in Maine. On September 25, 2023, the Father filed an application for the child’s return with the Greek Central Authority. The Maine court held a hearing in December 2023, and the Father did not attend. After retaining Maine counsel, on April 19, 2024, he filed a motion in the Maine case to dismiss the complaint, and a separate petition, in the same Maine state divorce case, under the Hague Abduction Convention seeking the return of his child to Greece. On August 15, 2024, the Maine court issued an order denying the Father’s petition under the Abduction Convention. The Father appealed arguing that the court mis-dated the date on which the child’s retention in Maine became wrongful, and that meant they erroneously allowed the Mother to argue that the child was settled in Maine. The court had found it was January 4, 2023, the date that the Mother told the Father she was not returning with the child. On appeal, the Father argued that the date the retention became wrongful was July 17, 2023, the date the Mother filed for divorce. Alternatively, if the date was January 4, 2023, as the trial court concluded, then he argued that he initiated proceedings on September 25, 2023 by filing his application with the Greek Central Authority. Under either configuration put forth by the Father, he filed within one year, and the Mother could not possibly have been allowed to argue that the child was now settled in Maine.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court disagreed on both accounts. First, the date of wrongful retention was January 4, 2023 - the date when there was a fixed return date that the Mother refused to adhere to. Second, the date on which the Father commenced proceedings for the child’s return was April 19, 2024 - the date he filed a request to return the child in an actual court proceeding in Maine. The federal implementing legislation - the International Child Abduction Remedies Act - is clear that commencing a proceeding means filing in court in the jurisdiction where the child is sitting post abduction. Therefore, the SJC affirmed the trial court decision, denying the Father’s request to return the child to Greece.