In Lops v. Lops, 140 F.3d 927 (11^th Cir. 1998), the mother filed a petition seeking return of her two children to Germany. The District Court found that respondents, the mother's former husband and his mother, wrongfully removed the children from Germany and ordered their return. The Court of Appeals held that the exercise of jurisdiction by federal district court was not barred by collateral estoppel; the district court's refusal to abstain, due to parallel state court action, was not an abuse of discretion; and respondents failed to show that the children were "well-settled," within the meaning of the affirmative defense to wrongful removal claim.

The German court's orders and final judgment granting the wife a divorce and permanent custody were entitled to priority as to the habitual residence of the children and the custody issues at the time that the children were removed form Germany. "Habitual residence" of the children was Germany at the time they were removed from Germany, even though the wife had lived with children in Belgium for four months prior to that removal, where the children had lived in Germany since birth.

Georgia court's interlocutory order transferring the wife's petition from a Georgia trial court to a South Carolina trial court did not preclude federal district court in Georgia from exercising jurisdiction over the subsequent petition filed by wife, under the doctrine of collateral estoppel. Jurisdiction over the ICARA petition in Georgia was proper, because ICARA was based on the children's location, not traditional residency, and the order of Georgia court was not a final appealable order because it remained pending "in the court below."