Grandparents Not Entitled to Visitation After Children Adopted
Tennessee child custody case summary on grandparent visitation in divorce and family law.
Grandparents unable to obtain visitation after child adopted by non-relatives.
Roger Judd, et Al., v. Kaylee Powell, et Al.
The Tennessee Grandparent Visitation statute grants Visitation rights to grandparents if visitation is not allowed by the custodial parents. But there is an important limitation in that statute: If a child is adopted by someone other than a stepparent or relative, then visitation rights granted prior to the adoption are terminated.
In this Putnam County, Tennessee, case, the three children were adopted by a non-relative after the children were removed from the mother. In 2023, the maternal grandparents filed a petition for grandparent visitation. No court order had ever granted them visitation. The lower court dismissed their petition for lack of standing, and they appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
The appellate court agreed with the lower court that they lacked standing. It noted that the plain language of the statute as well as the case law confirmed this conclusion. Since the children were placed with a non-relative, the Grandparent Visitation Statute simply did not apply.
The Court of Appeals also affirmed the lower court’s award of attorney’s fees to the adoptive parents. However, it denied their request for attorney’s fees for defending the appeal.
The opinion of the Court of Appeals was authored by Judge Kristi M. Davis.
No. M2024-00319-COA-R3-JV (Tenn. Ct. App. Mar. 14, 2025).
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
To learn more, see Grandparent Visitation Rights Law in Tennessee.
