Dad Granted Custody Over Grandparents After Release From Prison

Tennessee child custody case summary on grandparent rights.

In re Christian S. 

This Marshall County, Tennessee, case involved the custody of an 8-year-old boy.  The maternal grandmother and her husband had raised the child since he was one year old, and had legal custody under a court order.

The child’s father had been incarcerated at the time the child was placed with the grandparents.  When he was released from incarceration in 2016, he filed a petition seeking visitation, and ultimately asked for custody of the child.

In his petition, he alleged that he had a good relationship with the child and the child’s mother prior to his incarceration.

After initial hearings, the court granted the father overnight visitation every other weekend.  The grandparents then intervened and asked to remain the primary residential parents.

After several other hearings, the trial court issued its final order.  It held that the father retained his superior parental rights and was entitled to guardianship and custody of the child.  It did, however, award the grandparents visitation one weekend a month, plus one week per year.  The grandparents then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The first issue the appeals court addressed was whether the father had forfeited his parental rights in the original proceeding.  It noted that this issue was of constitutional dimension, since parents have constitutional protection of their parental rights.  The trial court had looked at the original order as being temporary, and therefore did not permanently end the father’s parental rights.  The appeals court agreed with this reasoning.  It noted in particular that the father had not appeared in the original proceeding, and his signature did not appear on the relevant orders.

The grandparents next argued that there would be substantial harm to the child if the child was returned to the father.  The appeals court focused on the word “substantial,” and concluded that there was insufficient proof of such substantial harm.  The trial court had noted that “both homes are appropriate,” and the appeals court found that this finding was supported by the evidence.

There was some evidence as to how the change of custody would affect the child’s school performance.  But the appeals court agreed with the trial court’s conclusion.

The grandparents pointed to testimony of a psychologist.  In particular, they pointed to the fact that the child had told the psychologist that he did not want to live with his father.  After reviewing the evidence, however, the appeals court agreed that the evidence supported the lower court’s ruling.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the lower court.

No. M2018-00128-COA-R3-JV  (Tenn. Ct. App. Oct. 24, 2018).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Grandparent Visitation Rights Law in Tennessee.

See also Tennessee Parenting Plans and Child Support Worksheets: Building a Constructive Future for Your Family featuring examples of parenting plans and child support worksheets from real cases available on Amazon.com.