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 Editorials | Issues | January 2007 
Man Sues Airline in Parental Abduction
 Kansas City Star
A former Kansas City man sued an airline this week, alleging that it negligently allowed his ex-wife to take their daughter to Mexico against his wishes.
The mother and 3-old-daughter remain missing in Mexico, said Didier Combe, who filed the suit in federal court in Massachusetts, where he now lives. A Kansas City federal grand jury charged the mother, Aline Rivas-Vera, in June with international parental kidnapping.
In his suit, Combe alleged that Continental Airlines allowed Rivas-Vera to take the girl, Chloe, from Kansas City to Mexico City without requiring written permission from him. According to the suit, both Continental's policies and Mexican law require a single parent traveling with a minor child to present a notarized letter from the absent parent authorizing travel into Mexico.
'By not following its own stated company guidelines or the relevant international laws in place to protect children, Continental Airlines was complicit and participated in the abduction of my daughter,' Combe said. 'This airline failed to protect my little girl.'
A Continental spokeswoman declined to comment, saying the airline had not seen the suit.
Anthony Tarricone, Combe's lawyer, said suits against airlines in child abduction cases are rare. In 2005 a Connecticut jury returned a $27 million verdict against a charter company for allowing a father to use its jet to kidnap his children and take them to Egypt.
Combe lived in Kansas City for more than 10 years and owned Cafe des Amis, a French restaurant in Parkville.
He and Rivas-Vera separated in January 2006 and were working on a divorce in Platte County when she left for Mexico with Chloe on March 15. Their divorce became final July 3, and a judge gave Combe legal and physical custody of Chloe.
Combe has visited Mexico several times and is working with courts and authorities there to locate his daughter and return her to the United States. He said he was there in December, when authorities went to a home where she and her mother had been staying. However, Rivas-Vera had been tipped off the night before and fled with Chloe, Combe said.
'I miss her more than I could ever have thought,' he said. |
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