Grandparent Visitation in Minnesota

GRANDPARENT VISITATION IN MINNESOTA

In the United States Supreme Court case Troxel v. Granville, Father and Mother had two daughters from a relationship that ended in 1991. After their separation, Father lived with his parents and regularly brought his daughters to his parents' home for weekend visitations. Father died in May 1993, and in October 1993 Mother informed Father’s parents that she wished to limit visitations to once a month. The paternal grandparents petitioned to obtain visitation rights with their granddaughters under a Statute that allowed any third part to Petition for visitation with children at any time.

The United States Supreme Court held that "the interest of parents in the care, custody and control of their children—is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this Court." That fundamental right is implicated in grandparent visitation cases, and as such, it struck down the visitation statute because it unconstitutionally infringed on the right.

Because of the Troxel decision, Minnesota grandparents are often left worrying about their rights to see their grandchildren following an intergenerational fight, divorce, or death of an adult child. Despite the Troxel decision, however, there is a Minnesota State Statute that provides a narrow avenue by which grandparents may in fact Petition the Court for visitation rights with their grandchildren.

Grandchildren Previously Lived with you

If your grandchildren have previously lived with you for at least one year, but the parent(s) of the children later decide to move the children out of your home, you may petition the court for reasonable visitation rights with your grandchildren, provided that the court finds such visitation to be in your grandchildren’s best interests and that the visitation would not interfere with the parent and child relationship.

Parent is Deceased

If your child has become deceased, and your ex daughter-in-law or son-in-law is refusing to let you see the grandchildren, you may be granted reasonable visitation rights with your minor grandchildren. Again, the court will evaluate whether granting you visitation rights is in your grandchildren’s best interests and whether such visitation would not interfere with the parent and child relationship. The court will also consider the amount of personal contact you had with your grandchildren prior to requesting visitation from the court.

Intervening in Your Child’s Divorce or Custody Case

If your adult child is going through (or has previously gone through) a divorce, custody, legal separation, annulment, or paternity case, you may file a motion directly into that open or closed case requesting visitation with your grandchildren. The court may then grant you reasonable visitation with your grandchildren if it finds that providing you visitation is in the best interests of your grandchildren and that such visitation would not interfere with the parent and child relationship. Again, the court would likely consider the amount of personal contact you have had with the children prior to filing a motion with the court. It is also important to note that if your motion for grandparent visitation is heard and denied, you would have to wait at least six months prior to asking the court for visitation again.

Grandparent Visitation with a Child Adopted by a Stepparent

A grandparent may petition the court for visitation rights of a child who has been adopted by a stepparent under a few narrow circumstances. First, the grandparent may file such a petition if the grandparent is the parent of the minor child’s deceased parent. Second, such a petition may be filed if the grandparent is the parent of a parent of the minor child whose parental rights have been terminated. Of course, such visitation will not be granted unless the court determines that the requested visitation is in the child’s best interests and would not interfere with the parent and child relationship.

Can Non-grandparents Petition for Visitation?

Minnesota law does not only provide third party visitation rights to grandparents under the above circumstances. If a child has lived with another (non-grandparent) person other than a foster parent for two years or more and no longer resides with that person, the person may petition the court for reasonable visitation with the child provided that visitation would be in the child’s best interests, the individual and the child have established emotional ties creating a parent and child relationship, and visitation rights would not interfere with the relationship between the custodial parent and the child. The court will also consider the reasonable preference of the child, if the child is old enough to express a preference.

Conclusion

While grandparents (and other third parties) may petition for third party and grandparent visitation under a limited set of circumstances described above, if the parents are married without conflict, and the children reside with the parents, grandparents do not have a legal right to visitation. Visitation laws typically come into effect when the parents decide to divorce, separate, or where one of the parents becomes deceased. If you are a grandparent who is being denied access to your grandchildren, contact the grandparent rights attorneys at RAM Law PLLC to schedule your initial case evaluation.