11-4663 MARIA FERNANDA OBANDO GARCES, v. DINO MIGUIEL ZAVALA LEGARDA

State: Florida

Court: Florida First District Court

Docket No: 11-4663

Case Date: 05/08/2012

Preview:IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL FIRST DISTRICT, STATE OF FLORIDA MARIA FERNANDA OBANDO GARCES, Appellant, CASE NO. 1D11-4663 v. DINO MIGUEL LEGARDA, Appellee. _____________________________/ Opinion filed May 8, 2012. An appeal from the Circuit Court for Duval County. John Merrett, Judge. Mariya Zarakhovich, Jacksonville, for Appellant. Neil L. Weinreb, Jacksonville, for Appellee. ZAVALA NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE MOTION FOR REHEARING AND DISPOSITION THEREOF IF FILED

BENTON, C.J. By petition for writ of certiorari, Maria Fernanda Obando Garces sought review of circuit court orders entered August 26 and 29, 2011. The August 29 order superseded the August 26 order. Treating the petition for writ of certiorari as

a notice of appeal addressed to the nonfinal order issued August 29, 2011, see Fla. R. App. P. 9.130(a)(3)(C)(iii), we vacate the order under review and dismiss the appeal as moot. As best we can ascertain from the parties' pleadings, the parties agree that, in February of 2008, Ms. Obando Garces arrived in Florida, her two minor children in tow. The children's father, Dino Miguel Zavala Legarda, had consented to the children's leaving Ecuador for a sixty-day vacation in the United States.1 Some time after arriving in the United States, Ms. Obando Garces informed Mr. Zavala Legarda that neither she nor the children planned to return to Ecuador. Thereupon Mr. Zavala Legarda filed an action in Ecuador, asserting the children had been kidnapped and were being illegally detained in the United States. On May 28, 2009, Mr. Zavala Legarda filed an action in Florida's Fourth Circuit seeking to domesticate and enforce the Ecuadorian judgment he had obtained, and return of the children to him and to Ecuador. The learned trial judge described the Ecuadorian judgment as "requiring the return of the children to" Ecuador. On July 27, 2009, Mr. Zavala Legarda also filed a petition pursuant to the International Child Abduction Remedies Act, 42 U.S.C.

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