TN Grandparents Can’t Get Visitation Unless Mom Denies It

Tennessee law case summary on grandparent visitation rights in divorce and family law from the Court of Appeals.

In re Landon R.W.  – Tennessee grandparents’ rights.

This was a grandparent visitation case, in which the grandparents, Danny and Donna W., filed a petition to establish a parenting plan for their grandson, Landon R.W.  The child was born in 2007 and lived in the grandparents since birth.  In 2013, the mother removed him from their home and allowed only brief visitation.  They asked to be named the primary caregivers or for regular custodial time.

Montgomery County, Tennessee, Juvenile Court Judge  Ray Grimes dismissed the case, holding that the grandparents had not established that the mother opposed the visitation.  The grandparents then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The appeals court began by noting that it would review the case de novo, but with a presumption of correctness of the trial court’s findings.  It then stated that parents have superior rights to the upbringing of their children, subject to the provisions of the Tennessee grandparent visitation statute.  However, the grandparents bear the burden of proof in establishing that the statute applies, and in this case, they had the burden of proof that the mother opposed their visitation.

The appeals court carefully reviewed the transcript of the trial, and agreed with the lower court that this standard had not been met.  For example, the grandmother had testified that “the visitation we’re getting is random when she lets us have it.”  In particular, there was no evidence that the mother had told the grandparents that they could not see the child, and she did not oppose visitation.  The fact that the grandparents had previously been the primary caregivers did not change the rule set forth in the statute.  They were not legally recognized as the parents, and in the absence of a denial, the statute does not allow the court to set a visitation schedule.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals affirmed Judge Grimes’ ruling.

No. M2013-02216-COA-R3-JV (Tenn. Ct. App. May 2, 2014).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Tennessee Grandparent Visitation Rights Law.