Grandparents not entitled to visitation after adoption
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, maternal grandparents filed a request for grandparent visitation. The court had never granted them visitation. The lower court dismissed the petition due to lack of standing. They appealed the decision to the Tennessee Court of Appeals. The court noted that both the plain language and case law of the statute 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. It denied their request for attorneys fees to defend the appeal.
