Court rules child must stay in TT

A HIGH COURT judge on Thursday prevented a husband from taking his two-and-a-half-year-old daughter from her mother to Miami to spend Christmas. In an unprecedented ruling, Justice Jeffrey Stollmeyer was called out as the vacation judge Thursday to hear the urgent application involving a custody battle between husband Hansen Narinesingh and wife Tricia Dixi-Ann of Orchard Gardens, Chaguanas, over daughter Haley. Narinesingh pleaded in a summons — Number 738 of 2004, filed in the Sub-Registry in San Fernando, that he had already purchased tickets for his daughter to spend Christmas with relatives in Miami. Ruling in favour of wife Dixi-Ann, however, Justice Stollmeyer said that the court was not satisfied of the protection the child would be given abroad.

Hansen, wife Dixi-Ann and daughter Haley appeared before Justice Stollmeyer in the Chamber Court, San Fernando. Haley was kept out of court during hearing of the proceedings. In court documents filed yesterday in the Sub-Registry, Hansen pleaded that he and Dixi-Ann held discussions on December 14 about his access and visitation right to daughter Haley for the Christmas vacation. “I informed the respondent (Dixi-Ann) about taking Haley with me to Miami, Florida, where my parents would be vacationing,” Hansen stated. He said that it was agreed that Haley would be delivered to him by Dixi-Ann on Christmas Day for their departure.

They were carded to return on January 3. He also stated that he arranged with Dixi-Ann for her to collect the child at the airport on her return. Agreement was made, he added, for her to call her mother on a daily basis from Miami. However, Dixi-Ann contended that she viewed Hansen’s proposals to take Haley abroad for Christmas as highly suspicious. She stated that she was afraid that if her daughter was in Hansen’s custody abroad, he may fail to return her to the jurisdiction. Attorneys Dinesh Rambally, instructed by Norma Marshall of the law firm Daltons, argued before Justice Stollmeyer, that Hansen had no intention of seizing custody of Haley by keeping her in Miami. Tickets for both father and daughter’s travel were already confirmed by Maria’s Tours and Travel Ltd, the attorney submitted.