Lozano v. Alvarez

Article 12 of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (Hague Convention) required that a country immediately repatriate a wrongfully removed child if the child’s parent petitioned for the child’s repatriation within one year of the child’s removal. The one-year period began running on the date of the child’s wrongful removal. Article 12’s language did not provide for an extension of the one-year period; however, Article 12 required repatriation after the expiration of the year-long period unless the child was settled in the new country. Manuel Jose Lozano (plaintiff) and Diana Lucia Montoya Alvarez (defendant) lived in London and had a child together. Lozano abused Montoya Alvarez, causing the child’s behavior and development to suffer. In November 2008, Montoya Alvarez took the child and fled to a women’s shelter, where they lived until July 2009, when Montoya Alvarez took the child to live with family in New York State. Meanwhile, Lozano searched for Montoya Alvarez and the child and eventually realized that they were in New York. In March 2010, 16 months after Montoya Alvarez removed the child from the United Kingdom, Lozano filed an Article 12 repatriation petition in a New York district court. Lozano argued that the doctrine of equitable tolling applied to Article 12, allowing the court to grant his petition despite his filing outside the one-year period. The district court held that Lozano made out a prima facia case for wrongful removal but denied Lozano’s petition, finding that equitable tolling did not apply. Lozano appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which affirmed. Lozano appealed to the United States Supreme Court.