A displaced single mother in Tampa finds herself in one of many custody battles created by Hurricane Katrina.
By CANDACE RONDEAUX, Times Staff Writer
Published December 17, 2005
[Times photo: Brian Cassella]
Carmen Lusignan and her former husband are at odds over the custody of Caroline, 2. Lusignan says she had to leave New Orleans to take care of her family after Katrina. Caroline's father says the move violates their custody arrangement.
Lusignan and daughters Caroline and Hillary have dinner in their new Tampa apartment on Friday evening. Lusignan must return to Louisiana for a Dec. 28 court hearing to explain why she left the state and why it's in Caroline's best interest to remain in Florida.
TAMPA - Carmen Lusignan doesn't like to talk about the nights she and her two young girls camped on a stranger's lawn in Baton Rouge. Hurricane Katrina took away her home, her job and just about everything she knew.
To start over, the 33-year-old single mom moved to Tampa, where she had a cousin.
But the move took her younger daughter hundreds of miles away from Lusignan's ex-husband, with whom she shared custody.
Now 2-year-old Caroline is caught up in a custody dispute that is forcing courts in Florida and Louisiana into uncharted legal territory.
Nearly four months after Katrina scattered thousands of families across the nation, Lusignan and her ex-husband are not the only ones facing this dilemma.
Family law attorneys in the New Orleans area and around the country say they have been inundated with calls from parents locked in cross-state custody quagmires.
"It's a real tragedy because these people that have been through so much now have to deal with all these family issues, and the courts really weren't designed to deal with this," said Cheryl Hepfer, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, a national organization of family law attorneys.
"We know that there are thousands of children who are affected in the Louisiana and Mississippi area. Most people resolve these issues on their own, but unfortunately there are some cases that just require that somebody else - be it a judge or a mediator - has to get involved."
In the Tampa case, Caroline's father, Stephen Trauth, filed a motion in a Louisiana court saying Lusignan violated a custody order when she relocated to Florida.
He demanded she return to Louisiana for a hearing. On Friday, Lusignan's attorney, Dario Diaz, filed an emergency petition asking a Hillsborough court to intervene until a judge can determine whether it is in the child's best interest to stay in Florida.
"How am I supposed to go back? What am I supposed to go back to?" said Lusignan, who has a 9-year-old daughter, Hillary, from another relationship.
A member of the Louisiana National Guard, Trauth assisted with the Katrina emergency response in the New Orleans area. Attorneys for both parents agree that the hurricane left Lusignan with little choice but to flee.
Trauth's attorney, Bennett Wolff, said Caroline's father has flown to Florida several times to visit her. But, he said, Trauth has a right under the couple's joint custody agreement to argue that she remain in Louisiana so he can see the girl regularly.
"His daughter means his whole life to him. Everything so far has been done by consent of both parents," Wolff said. "What we're asking is for Carmen to come comply with Louisiana law. She has a right to present her case in a Louisiana court. We're not going to have Katrina be the pretext for relocation and an excuse to get out of Dodge."
Most states, including Florida, have statutes dealing with the thorny issue of jurisdiction when a parent takes a child from the state where a custody agreement was made.
Under the 1997 Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, the home state typically gets jurisdiction in such disputes. But the law also allows a parent who has moved to ask a court in the newly adopted state to intervene in emergencies or in situations where no state is a home state.
Diaz said the unique circumstances in New Orleans and continuing disarray with the court system will make it logistically tough for a Louisiana court to rule on Lusignan's case.
He argued in the motion filed Friday that forcing the mother and child to return to New Orleans constitutes "mistreatment" and an emergency situation.
"It's mistreatment to send somebody back to where they have no life, no job, no house with their child. A judge who says it isn't does not have the child's best interest at heart," Diaz said.
After moving her from Algiers, La., Lusignan got an apartment in Tampa and now works as a bank teller, she said.
Louisiana Bar Association president-elect Marta-Ann Schnabel said damage from the storm has thrown the area's legal system into chaos, and courts have only recently begun operating again.
The Louisiana Supreme Court struggled for months to find housing for its staff and began operating in the city on Dec. 1, she said. The Orleans Parish Court is not expected to begin operating in New Orleans proper again until Jan. 3.
Meanwhile, Schnabel said, the state bar association's disaster legal aid hotline is ringing off the hook with child custody questions. Since Oct. 14, bar association staffers have fielded 250 calls, she said.
"Many, many families have this problem," Schnabel said. "People who have chosen to move away certainly have good reasons to relocate, but taking the jurisdiction away from Louisiana courts truly has a negative impact on families that have chosen to stay and rebuild because they will have to deal with the expense of waging a legal battle for their children."
New Orleans area family law lawyer Edith Morris said she has received many calls from parents with joint custody who are confused about where the law leaves them and their children.
"It's a mess because there are parents that think it's better for their kids to be in a more stable environment, and there are parents that think it's better for their kids to have contact with both parents regardless," Morris said.
No one can say for sure the scope of the problem. About 125,000 people in the New Orleans area are divorced, and some 53,000 households are headed by single mothers, according to a 2004 Census Bureau survey. In the Biloxi and Gulfport metro area, about 30,000 people are divorced and more than 12,000 households are headed by single mothers.
Late Friday afternoon, Hillsborough Circuit Judge Monica Sierra denied Diaz's motion, said the judge's judicial assistant. She said the judge was not available to comment on Lusignan's case.
That means Lusignan must return to Louisiana for a Dec. 28 court hearing to explain why she left Louisiana and why it's in Caroline's best interest to remain in Florida.
But she won't be going back to New Orleans.
The Orleans Parish court where Trauth filed his motion was temporarily moved to Gonzales, La., a town about 90 minutes away.
Times staff writer Matthew Waite and researcher Angie Holan Drobnic contributed to this report. Candace Rondeaux can be reached at 813 226-3337 or rondeaux@sptimes.com
