Didier Combe and his daughter, Chloe Combe-Rivas, who was taken to Mexico last March.
Airline is sued after mother flees US with daughter
Divorced father says it ignored regulations
In the midst of a divorce case last March, the mother of 2 1/2-year-old Chloe Combe-Rivas secretly boarded a
Yesterday, the young girl's distraught father, Didier Combe, 40, who recently moved to Ipswich, filed a federal lawsuit in Boston against Continental Airlines, accusing the carrier of negligence, breach of contract, and interference with custodial relations. The suit says Continental ignored its own regulations, which require a single parent traveling from the United States to Mexico with a minor child to provide a notarized letter from the other parent authorizing the trip.
"I just feel that they didn't protect my child the way it was supposed to be done," said Combe, who has made six trips to Mexico in a vain search for the brown-eyed, curly-haired daughter he hasn't seen since his former wife failed to return her from a visit. "I know that I have to try everything to get her back."
A spokeswoman for Continental Airlines, Julie King, said the company has not yet received a copy of the lawsuit and declined to comment.
Combe, a French native who came to the United States on a tennis scholarship in 1991 and became a citizen two years ago, said he and his former wife, Aline Rivas-Vera, were living in Kansas City, going through a divorce, and sharing 50-50 custody of their daughter when she fled last year.
"I brought Chloe to her Mom's for the day on March 14," said Combe. He has not seen her since. The next day, his estranged wife was supposed to return with the child, but didn't show up.
He said he later learned that Rivas-Vera, 27, who is a Mexican citizen, had boarded Continental Flight 2547 from Kansas City to Houston with their daughter, then caught Continental Flight 1524 to Mexico City.
A Missouri court granted Combe full custody of his daughter last year, and in June, his former wife was indicted by a federal grand jury in Missouri on an international parental kidnapping charge.
Lawyer Anthony Tarricone of Boston, who represents Combe, accused Continental Airlines of failing to protect Chloe Combe-Rivas and violating regulations that were specifically designed to prevent parental kidnapping.
Continental and other carriers flying to Mexico began requiring dual parental consent after the Mexican government enacted a law requiring single parents flying into that country with minor children to provide a notarized letter of consent from the other parent, or proof that they have sole custody of the child. Similar laws have been passed by other countries, according to lawyers.
Tarricone said he didn't know why Combe's former wife was able to board the flight with her daughter or whether she had provided forged documents.
"What we do know is he never signed a letter of consent and she was able to board a flight with Chloe," said Tarricone, adding that the fact that Chloe has a different last name than her mother should have "set off a red flag" with airline employees.
Tarricone said the suit may be the first of its kind filed against a commercial carrier.
Two years ago, a Connecticut jury ordered a Cincinnati-based charter jet company to pay $27 million to a Topsfield mother for failing to provide safeguards protecting children from abductions. In that case, Executive Jet Management had been chartered on short notice by a divorced father to fly him and his two young children to Egypt in 2002. The children were later taken to Cuba and then reunited with their mother after the intervention of President Fidel Castro.
Lawyer Barry S. Pollack of Boston, who represented the mother in that case, said, "A lot of time and effort goes into ensuring that some improper items are not brought on in your luggage. Airlines should take equally seriously the need to protect against children being abducted."
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
