Dad Has Superior Rights Over Grandmother
Tennessee child custody case summary regarding parental rights.
Dustin W. Brown v. Sarah Farley
The child in this Cumberland County, Tennessee, case was born in 2010. In 2014, the State of Tennessee filed a paternity action on behalf of the father. The maternal grandmother had previously been granted custody of the child, and in 2015, the father filed a petition asking for custody.
The father offered DNA evidence that he was the biological father, and alleged that he had enjoyed co-parenting time until the grant of custody to the grandmother. He alleged that the grandmother had recently refused his requests to visit the child. The grandmother filed an answer requesting that she maintain custody, and that the father be required to continue child support.
Trial was held in 2018, and the trial court granted the father custody, effective immediately. The grandmother then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
The appeals court began its opinion by noting that in a non-jury case, the lower court’s decision is reviewed de novo, but with a presumption of correctness of fact findings. It then turned to the legal standard to be applied. The trial court had based its decision upon the premise that the father possessed superior parental rights. The court noted that this issue has a constitutional dimension, since constitutionally, parental rights are superior to those of others.
The appeals court noted that the father had never relinquished his rights by transferring custody to a non-parent. The mother had previously transferred her custody rights to the grandmother, but the father was not a party to that order and had no notice of it. The court noted a number of prior cases where the father had retained custody rights under similar circumstances.
Since the father had never relinquished his rights, the appeals court concluded that custody could not be changed unless there was a risk of substantial harm. Accordingly, it addressed that issue next. The grandmother argued that the father had a history of alcoholism, driving while intoxicated, and domestic violence.
But the father had testified that he had been sober for three years, was employed, and lived in a situation that he called stable. Counselors who had supervised visitation testified that all visits had gone well.
After reviewing the evidence, the Court of Appeals held that the evidence supported the lower court’s factual findings. It therefore agreed that there was no showing of risk of harm. For these reasons, the Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s ruling in all respects.
No. E2018-01144-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Feb. 28, 2019).
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
To learn more, see Child Custody Laws 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.
