Final Hearing on Transfer of Temporary Custody between Parent and Grandparent.
N/AOUTCOME: The minor child was returned to Mother due to grandparents meeting their burden of "clear and convincing" evidence. The Grandparents failed to show the child would be subjected to any harm if returned to Mother.
A young, unmarried couple, had a minor child years ago. Over the course of the minor child aging, the parents began to struggle financially and residentially. As a decision they believed to be in the b ... est interest of the minor child, the Mother and Father agreed to allow the paternal grandparents to house the minor child until they were able to regain stability. About a year after the agreed temporary schedule was entered, the Mother was prepared to regain custody of the minor child. However, the grandparents disagreed and refused to allow Mother to regain custody of the minor child. On behalf of the Mother, I filed a Motion to Set Aside the Temporary Parenting Schedule and Return Minor Child to Mother. At the final hearing, the Court ruled in my client's favor and ordered the temporary parenting schedule become dissolved and the minor child return to Mother immediately. This matter was very unusual. The Court could not award the grandparents direct visitation, but instead awarded the Father (who resided with the grandparents) every other weekend. The takeaway from this matter is that if you are the party agreeing to receive temporary custody under similar conditions, you must have the parent acknowledge in the Order or before the Court that the child is subjected to harm if the child resides with the parent. There was no finding of harm at any point in time leading up to the transfer of temporary custody and as a result, the legs were cut out from underneath the grandparents upon the return of my client.
