Andrew Charles Nisbet v. Spirit Rose Bridger

Portland, Oregon family law lawyers represented the parties in a child custody dispute involving r the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.



Nisbet and Bridger met in 2012 in New York City when they were both on vacation.[4] Nisbet, a British citizen, lived and worked in Scotland as a radiologist. Bridger, a United States citizen, lived in Oregon and was unemployed. [5]



Despite Bridger's desire to stay in the United States, she moved to Scotland in 2012 to be with Nisbet because he purportedly could not work in the United States as a radiologist. They lived in an apartment in Edinburgh that Nisbet owned and viewed only as temporary ("Edinburgh Residence"). [6] Nisbet's long-term plan had always been to raise his family in his parents' house on the Island of Jersey ("Jersey Residence"), a British Crown Dependency. And throughout the relevant period, Bridger had and has always maintained a residence in Oregon.



Bridger wished to marry Nisbet, but they never did. In Spring 2017, Bridger became pregnant with ACN in Scotland. Adamant about the Jersey Residence, Nisbet asked to live with his parents. Bridger in the meantime was thinking about returning to the United States. Nisbet told Bridger she would return to the United States if his parents turned them down.



And turn them down his parents did, albeit after extensive arguments between Nisbet and his parents. Shortly thereafter, Nisbet attempted suicide by injecting air into his veins, but he survived. Uninvited, Nisbet then took Bridger to Jersey, and they showed up on the doorstep of the Jersey Residence. Nisbet's parents relented and allowed them to stay at an annex of the Jersey Residence on a temporary basis while Bridger was pregnant with ACN.



In January 2018, Nisbet again attempted suicide, this time by throwing himself out of a twenty-foot-high window onto a concrete patio, fracturing his feet and spine. Consequently, he was bedridden for at least seven months.



In February 2018, one month after Nisbet's second suicide attempt, ACN was born in Jersey. Bridger took care of both ACN and Nisbet for six months in Jersey, with minimal assistance from Nisbet's parents. In August 2018, once Nisbet could manage his own needs, Bridger moved from Jersey to Scotland with ACN. Nisbet still lived in Jersey but commuted back and forth between Jersey and Edinburgh. During this period, Bridger prepared to leave for the United States, but Nisbet convinced her to stay for a few more months so that he could try to resolve his family strife. [7]



In February 2019, Bridger returned to Jersey with ACN after Nisbet assured her that he had reconciled with his parents. Despite this assurance, however, Nisbet's relationship with his parents deteriorated. Nisbet would

bang his head against the wall every day, sometimes several times a day. He punched walls and broke a table. The police were called when Nisbet once cornered his father and pulled his mother's hair. Scared, Bridger told Nisbet she no longer loved him and wanted to return to the United States.



In early August 2019, Nisbet's parents served a notice of eviction on Nisbet and Bridger. On August 6, 2019, Nisbet killed his mother by stabbing her in the neck with a pocketknife. He was arrested and pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility owing to mental disorder. The Royal Court of Jersey sentenced Nisbet to indefinite psychiatric confinement at Brockfield House in Essex, England. The district court found that Nisbet's family had since severed contact with Nisbet, Bridger, and ACN. [8]



Around the same time, by August 2019, Bridger had become pregnant with KRN. After Nisbet was arrested, Bridger and ACN were taken to a refuge and then to a halfway house in Jersey. Bridger planned to return to the United States once she was no longer needed for the police's investigation of Nisbet. As KRN's due date neared, however, Bridger instead moved to the Edinburgh Residence in late 2019 to give birth to KRN because she did not have health insurance in the United States, she had no other place in the United Kingdom to live with her children, and she believed she needed to remain in the country while Nisbet's criminal case was pending. That said, Bridger still planned to leave for the United States shortly thereafter, if she were released by the police authorities.



KRN was born in February 2020. [9] Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit; country borders and airlines were closed.



From then until June 2022, and during the COVID-19 restrictions period, Bridger lived in the Edinburgh Residence with ACN and KRN. Bridger kept in contact with Nisbet because she needed Nisbet's signature to apply for KRN's U.S. passport, she needed financial support from Nisbet, and her U.K. visa was expiring.[10] Bridger told Nisbet multiple times she needed to return to the United States and reunite with her family.



While in Edinburgh, ACN and KRN attended a nursery school, and they received regular medical and dental care. Bridger testified that ACN and KRN "didn't actually make friends when they were in Scotland at nursery." They made acquaintances elsewhere, "but they never knew anyone on a name basis."



ACN and KRN visited Nisbet several times at St. Andrew's Hospital in Northampton, England, where Nisbet has been in custody since April 2021. [11] Nisbet scheduled Skype calls with ACN and KRN from his psychiatric facility in England every day for an hour. He tried to read stories and play games with them, but often after a short period, ACN and KRN stopped paying attention to Nisbet on the screen.



Bridger never intended Scotland to be more than a temporary location for her and her children. In December 2021, Nisbet finally signed the necessary documentation for KRN's U.S. passport, knowing Bridger intended to take KRN to the United States. Bridger immediately applied for a U.S. passport for KRN. While waiting for months to receive KRN's U.S. passport, Bridger began packing and sent belongings to the United States. On June 17, 2022, Bridger left Scotland for the United States with ACN and KRN.



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A habitual-residence determination is a mixed question of law and fact-"albeit barely so." Id. at 84. A trial court must first correctly identify the totality-of-the-circumstances standard. Id. Once it has done so, what remains is a factual question that can be reviewed on appeal only for clear error. Id. Under this standard of review, we cannot reverse a district court's finding that is "plausible in light of the record viewed in its entirety," even if we are convinced that we would have found differently. Anderson v. City of Bessemer City, N.C. , 470 U.S. 564, 574 (1985). If "there are two permissible views of the evidence," the trial court's "choice

between them cannot be clearly erroneous." Id. (citations omitted).



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Legal issue Did the children have a habitual residence in Scotland under the Hague Convention when they were taken to the United States?



Key Phrases Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Habitual residence determination. Caregiving parent intentions. Totality of circumstances. Grave risk exception.

ccordingly, we do not find the district court committed a clear error in focusing on the intention and circumstances of Bridger, the sole caregiving parent of ACN and KRN.