Facts
M. (the mother) and V. (the father) are the parents of T. (born on December 26, 2005) and S. (born on May 4, 2007). During the marriage, the children were primarily cared for by the father. The mother left the marital home with the children and filed a request for protective measures of the marital union with the District Court of Uster, which placed the children under the custody of the father during the separation. The mother appealed this decision to the Cantonal Court of Zurich, requesting that the custody of the children be entrusted to her. She also requested the suspensive effect of her appeal. The President of the Cantonal Court rejected this latter request. The mother then filed a civil law appeal with the Federal Tribunal, which ultimately rejected the appeal.Considerations
According to the case law of the Federal Tribunal, the appellate court must only grant suspensive effect to the appeal against a provisional decision on custody in exceptional cases. However, it has a wide discretion to take into account the circumstances of the specific case. When the first instance decision maintains custody with the parent who has primarily cared for the child before the separation, the suspensive effect of the other parent's appeal must, as a rule, be refused, unless there are important reasons, in particular…