Tennessee Court Denies Grandparent Visitation After Christmas Lawsuit

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

Kimberly Lou Uselton v. Jessica Walton  – Tennessee grandparent visitation denied

The mother and father of the child in this grandparent visitation case were never married.  The child was born in 2006.  The mother lived in Tennessee, and the father was domiciled there but was in the military.  After the child’s birth, the mother filed a parentage petition, and a parenting plan was adopted.  The father was ordered to pay child support, and was granted parenting time when he was home in Tennessee.  The mother allowed the father’s parents, who lived less than a mile away, to have liberal visitation, and they developed a relationship.  They had weekly visits the first year, and later stayed several times, including overnight.

When the child was about five, the mother married.  The father left the military, and accepted a civilian job in Hawaii, but intended to return to Tennessee.  About a year later, the mother announced that she was going to limit the grandparents’ visitation, but not entirely eliminate it, since she wanted to develop a more nuclear family relationship with her husband.  The grandparents responded by filing a lawsuit under the Tennessee Grandparent Visitation Statute.  After the lawsuit was filed, there was an argument over visitation on Christmas.  Subsequently, the mother removed the grandparents from the list of approved school visitors.

At trial, the grandparents testified as to their extensive and loving relationship with their granddaughter.  The mother acknowledged the significant relationship, but quibbled as to the extent of the visitation.  She testified, however, that she wanted her own family to grow closer.

The trial court granted the grandparents’ petition, and ordered visitation.  Essentially, the trial court gave them the same visitation rights the father would have were he in Tennessee.  It also set forth separate visitation at such time as the father returned to the state.  Dissatisfied with the ruling, the mother appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The Court of Appeals held that the Grandparent Visitation Statute did not allow the grandparents to stand in the shoes of their son, nor was it dispositive that they had enjoyed generous visitation in the past.  The Court noted that this approach improperly interferes with the parent’s rights.  Therefore, a court may not “assign” an absent parent’s visitation rights to the grandparents, as happened in this case.

In fact, the Court of Appeals noted that the threshold conditions of the statute had not been met in this case, because there was no evidence that visitation had been opposed within the meaning of the statute.  They had enjoyed visitation prior to the petition, and much of the evidence they had introduced had taken place after the petition was filed.  In particular, the Court noted that the petition had been filed two days before Christmas, and remarked that the mother had shown considerable restraint in allowing a Christmas visit even though the lawsuit had been filed.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of the trial court.  Judge Highers dissented, and stated that the statute should have been applied.

No. M2012-02333-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. June 21, 2013).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

For more information, see Tennessee Grandparent Visitation Rights Law.  To schedule your confidential consultation, call us today at (901) 683-1850.