Posted on 04/21/2011 7:42:25 PM PDT by TheDingoAteMyBaby
LOS ANGELES — A US man has sued Japan Airlines, claiming it wrongfully helped his Japanese ex-wife leave the United States with their son, despite court orders that the child remain in California.
Scott Sawyer alleges the airline and a US travel agency agency knowingly assisted his ex-wife, Japanese national Kyoko Sawyer, take their son Wayne to Japan in December 2008 when the boy was two years old.
"There is a long list of red flags that existed in this case that should have caused the airline and travel agency to do something," lawyer Mark Meuser told AFP on Saturday.
The companies were "deliberately turning blind eyes to the known parental kidnapping problem endemic to Japan and the warning signals surrounding this case," Meuser added in a statement.
Japan is the only major industrial country that has not signed the 1980 Hague Convention, which requires the return of wrongfully held children to their countries of usual residence.
When international marriages break up, Japanese courts rarely grant custody to a foreign parent, particularly fathers.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
-—When international marriages break up, Japanese courts rarely grant custody to a foreign parent, particularly fathers.-—
That right there should win the full support of most American feminists/
Do something? Do something like get up and walk around the concourse for a few minutes? March her down to the Chili's Bar and Grill for a warm sake? Call the police on suspicion of traveling to Japan? I suspect the ex-wife got out of Dodge at just the right time.
Since there is no indication that he is an unfit father, the child should be brought back to the states and the mother should lose custody rights. Perhaps 75%-25%, his favor?
Did you notice that the child is named “Wayne”? Could mean trouble in the Japanese criminal system.
The airline and the travel agency are not law enforcement.
Now if he wants to make a case against Immigration on the basis that they should not have let her take the boy out of the country on her passport then I would support him but on the face of it I do not see that he has a case against the airline or the travel agency.
I would suspect that in most Japanese-foreign marriages, the foreign parent is the father/husband.
Exactly what, in your opinion, did the father do wrong?
Isn’t there an international law that says a parent can’t take a child out of the home country without the other parent’s written permission?
This case is a tragedy for the husband and child. Japan should sign the treaty and cooperate to stop parental abduction cases. I am not sure if the travel agency and airline were at fault. I feel for the husband who has been denied access to his child. I have scorn for the mother who committed this crime against her child.
It’s called the Hague Convention, ratified by most nations in the ‘80s, but Japan has refused to sign.
He admits there is no law requiring them to check. She had a legal Japanese passport for herself and her son. This guy is angry and lashing out. I understand the anger but his anger is misdirected.
If it was so clear to him that Japan has a problem with child abduction, why did he marry and produce a child with a Japanese national?
Let's see this guy fly to Japan and win his court case there. As a father I can see his anger, but the fact that he irrationally sues the airline, admitting they broke no law, is the biggest "red flag" I see..
Several years ago my daughter, grandson and I were going to fly to Cancun from Houston for a few days over a school break. Her ex-husband had given up custody several years before and never saw or talked to his son. We had three round trip tickets, but Continental Airlines would not let us board without a notarized statement statement from the father and did not tell us about it until we got to the airport to leave - nor would they refund the money.
since there is no indication that she is an unfit mother, why should she lose custody?....he’s looking for money in a law suit...that should tell you something about him......
It's an interesting subject.
If I remember correctly (and it's been a while since I looked at the actual numbers versus anecdotal sources, so I could be off on some of this), it's true that for most Japanese-western marriages, the foreign parent is the husband.
However, with marriages to Asians, the numbers reverse, and the foreign parent is more likely the wife.
The airline and the travel agency are not law enforcement.
Now if he wants to make a case against Immigration on the basis that they should not have let her take the boy out of the country on her passport then I would support him but on the face of it I do not see that he has a case against the airline or the travel agency.
They can be held liable in a civil court as the child had a court order not to be taken out of the country. Any proof that they aidied and abetted, they will lose big-time.
The judge can also issue Contempt of Court citations to anyone involved in aiding the child leaving the country.
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