Egle v. Egle

715 F.2d 999 (5th Cir. 1983)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

August (H) and Ann (W) were married in 1960 in Miami. They had two children, and at the time of separation, their marital home was the former Canal Zone in Panama. Prior to the divorce and separation, H was forced to play find the children as when he arrived at the marital home in Maryland he found a letter from W's attorney stating that W was considering divorce. H had a difficult time in finding his children. Upon learning that W would be back on the Canal Zone, H filed an action for divorce in that District Court and had W served with process. Custody pendente lite was given to W conditioned upon her moving back to the Canal Zone and the granting of reasonable visitation rights to H. From the comments of the judge it was clear that both parties were using the children as pawns to seek revenge. W was found to persistently and unreasonably interfere with H's visitation rights, tried to turn the children against H, and made lurid and unbelievable charges against H that had no basis in fact and not one shred of evidence to support them. Nonetheless, W was given custody but was cautioned about her conduct. About one year later H motioned to have sole custody awarded to him. H testified about the troubles W caused which were basically the same types of conduct as before. The judge awarded custody to H in spite of a report by the Guardian recommending that W retain custody.