Background
The case involves a six-year custody dispute between Sarah S.C. Moreau and Andrew Christopher White, who moved from New York to Texas in two thousand and fourteen. After the couple had two children, Moreau relocated to Canada with them in two thousand and nineteen while Texas custody proceedings remained pending. The Texas court initially granted Moreau temporary custody rights, but later ordered the children returned to Texas. Moreau initiated parallel custody proceedings in Canada, where the court eventually recognized some Texas orders but superseded geographic restrictions. In two thousand and twenty-four, Moreau filed a petition under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction in federal court, arguing White wrongfully retained the children in Texas. The district court ordered the children returned to Canada and issued a preliminary injunction enjoining White and Texas judges from continuing custody litigation, while also ordering the Canadian court to decide the dispute.
The court’s reasoning
The Fifth Circuit reviewed the district court’s determination of habitual residence under a clear error standard, concluding the children were at home in Canada due to their integration into the social and family environment there for over five years. The court affirmed that White’s retention violated Moreau’s Canadian custody rights, which included the right to determine the children’s place of residence. Regarding the consent defense, the court found that Moreau’s repeated attempts to dismiss the Texas custody dispute constituted a revocation of consent to final adjudication in Texas. On judicial estoppel, the court declined to apply the common law defense, stating that the Hague Convention’s text does not permit extra-treaty defenses to its mandatory return remedy. Finally, the court vacated the preliminary injunction because it improperly enjoined a foreign sovereign tribunal and, as a corollary, the injunction restricting Texas litigation to enforce that command.
We AFFIRM the district court’s judgment ordering the return of the children to Canada but VACATE its preliminary injunction.
Moreau v. White, 25-40031 c/w No. 25-40364 (5th Cir. May 15, 2026)
The dissent
The majority’s interpretation of consent is ultimately inconsistent with the Hague Convention, and its disregard of judicial estoppel condones duplicitous conduct in court proceedings.
Edith Hollan Jones
What it means going forward
The ruling ensures the children’s return to Canada for custody adjudication but removes the federal court’s order compelling the Canadian court to act, leaving the enforcement of the return remedy to the parties and the respective state and foreign courts without federal injunctions.