Eidem v. Eidem

Background

This sealed order concerns enforcement of the court’s earlier order requiring Respondent Dana Marie Eidem to turn over the parties’ children and all necessary travel documents to Petitioner Per Magne Eidem. The children were to be returned to Norway under the Hague Convention and the court’s April 29, 2019 Opinion and Order.

The court stated that Dana Marie Eidem intended not to comply with the January 3, 2020 order requiring the transfer to occur at 9:00 a.m. on January 6, 2020. The court consulted with the United States Marshals Service about carrying out the children’s safe and orderly return.

Rulings

Judge Sullivan granted Per Magne Eidem’s request for a warrant to arrest Dana Marie Eidem and seize the children, subject to the order’s conditions. The United States Marshals Service, together with state or local law-enforcement personnel, mental-health professionals, and emergency medical technicians working with the Marshals Service, was authorized to take necessary and lawful steps—including reasonable and appropriate force—to remove the children from Dana Marie Eidem’s custody and deliver them as soon as practicable to Per Magne Eidem.

The court also found Dana Marie Eidem in civil contempt. It ordered that she be incarcerated until she signed and obtained all necessary travel documents for the children’s return to Norway or until further order of the court.

The order directed the Marshals Service to serve the order and warrant on Dana Marie Eidem, allowed it to disclose the order’s contents as necessary, and required it to notify the court promptly when the order and warrant were carried out. The opinion does not state whether the arrest, removal, or return had already occurred.