The father's petition for assistance from the Polish Central Authority did not preclude action under the Convention in District Court, since the Authority had no power to render judgment which would have a preclusive effect on the Court, the father attempted to resolve matter out of court to obtain voluntary visitation rights, and his intent was to have child returned to him or, if that was not possible, to have visitation.

Respondent contending that the child is now "settled" in her new home must show that the child is in fact settled in or connected to the new environment so that, at least inferentially, return would be disruptive with likely harmful effects. There must be substantial evidence of the child's significant connections. Among the factors considered by the courts in determining whether a child is settled in her new environment, are the age of the child, the stability of the child's residence in the new environment, whether the child attends school or day care consistently, whether the child attends church regularly, the stability of the mother's employment, and whether the child has friends and relatives in the new area.  A more comfortable material existence does not mean that the child is well settled. The child was not "well settled" in her new home, although she had been in the United States for two and a half years, where she had lived in at least three different locations and attended three different schools. She had been at the school she was currently attending for only four months. She did not attend extracurricular school-related activities or church on a regular basis, and she did not socialize with her classmates outside of school.