Court backs grandparent visitation rights
posted by: Jeffrey Wolf Web Producer
Created: 6/27/2006 4:53 PM MST - Updated: 6/27/2006 7:26 PM MST
DENVER (AP) - The Colorado Supreme Court has reversed a ruling that made it difficult for grandparents to visit their grandchildren if the parents objected.
The case involves a 14-year-old boy who spent his early years in Reno, Nev., with his parents and his grandparents, Neil and Anna Mae Forsyth. The boy was identified only as CA.
According to Monday's court ruling, CA's father, David, died when the child was 2, and his mother died five years later. The Forsyths helped the mother and child through a difficult transition and formed a relationship with the boy.
As the mother's cancer progressed, she and the child moved to Colorado so they could live with her sister and brother-in-law, the court ruling said. The Colorado couple adopted CA in 2000, three years after his mother died, starting a dispute over the grandparents' visitation rights.
Dan West, an attorney for the adoptive parents, said they never opposed visitation by the grandparents but did not want courts dictating the specifics.
They "have the same rights as any other parent -- that they get to decide who their child is going to associate with and when," West told The Denver Post.
Last year, the visitation came to a halt when the Colorado Court of Appeals issued a ruling sharply limiting the ability for grandparents to see grandchildren over parents' objections.
"If the (parents) say 'Sorry, it isn't happening,' and the parents aren't found to be loonies, then you (the grandparents) are out of luck no matter what the needs of the child," said Sean Cloyes, the Forsyths' lawyer.
The state's high court said there is still a presumption that the parents' decision on who can visit is correct. But grandparents can now argue that visitation rights are in the children's best interest.
"I think this ruling gives grandparents a fighting chance." Cloyes said.
Richard Harris, a Denver family law attorney, called the ruling "a major victory for everyone who cares about children's access to their grandparents." He said Colorado judges had generally been "rubber stamping" decisions of parents.
"The ruling reinstates grandparent visitation as a feasible option in our state," Harris said.