Opinion ID: 855048
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Grandparent Visitation Generally.

Text: Historically, grandparents had no special common-law right to have visitation with a grandchild. To the extent they could seek court-ordered visitation, it was under the same standard applicable to any unrelated third party: by showing that they had “acted in a custodial and parental capacity,” so that the child would be harmed by loss of that relationship. See, e.g., Collins v. Gilbreath, 403 N.E.2d 921, 923–24 (Ind. Ct. App. 1980) (affirming visitation award to a step-father on that basis). Even under that narrow standard, Collins cautioned that it did not “intend to open the door and permit the granting of visitation rights to . . . myriad . . . unrelated third persons, including grandparents, who happen to feel affection for a child,” believing that such a new policy should be adopted “in a legislative, not judicial, forum.” Id. at 923–24 & n.1. 3 Not until 1981 did an Indiana court recognize any limited right to grandparent visitation. See Krieg v. Glassburn, 419 N.E.2d 1015, 1018–19 (Ind. Ct. App. 1981) (construing Indiana Trial Rule 24(A)(2) to allow grandparents to intervene of right in post-dissolution custody and stepparent adoption proceedings and petition for visitation). The very next year, the Legislature superseded Krieg by passing Indiana’s first Grandparent’s Visitation Statute. Ind. Code § 31-1-11.7-1 to 8 (1982). The statute then became the exclusive basis for a grandparent to seek visitation, and was available only if (1) the child’s father or mother was deceased or (2) the child’s parents had divorced. In re Visitation of J.O., 441 N.E.2d 991, 995 (Ind. Ct. App. 1982). Apart from a 1989 amendment expanding the statute to include grandparents of children born out of wedlock, the substance of the statute has remained largely unchanged, even through its 1997 recodification to its current location at Indiana Code 31-17-5. In the same time frame, many other states also created statutory grandparent-visitation rights, affording varying degrees of deference to natural parents’ decisions about grandparent involvement. Ultimately, in Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000), the Supreme Court of the United States addressed the tension between those emerging rights and the fundamental right of fit parents to direct their children’s upbringing. Troxel acknowledged that because “grandparents and other relatives undertake duties of a parental nature in many households,” children’s relationships with grandparents may deserve protection. 530 U.S. at 64. Nevertheless, Troxel broadly agreed that natural parents have a fundamental constitutional right to direct their children’s upbringing without undue governmental interference, and that a child’s best interests do not necessarily override that parental right. In striking a balance between parental rights and children’s interests, the Troxel plurality discussed several key principles, see 530 U.S. at 69-71, which our Court of Appeals soon distilled into four factors that a grandparent-visitation order “should address”: (1) a presumption that a fit parent’s decision about grandparent visitation is in the child’s best interests (thus placing the burden of proof on the petitioning grandparents); (2) the “special weight” that must therefore be given to a fit parent’s decision regarding nonparental visitation (thus establishing a heightened standard of proof by which a grandparent must rebut the presumption); 4 (3) “some weight” given to whether a parent has agreed to some visitation or denied it entirely (since a denial means the very existence of a child-grandparent relationship is at stake, while the question otherwise is merely how much visitation is appropriate); and (4) whether the petitioning grandparent has established that visitation is in the child’s best interests. McCune v. Frey, 783 N.E.2d 752, 757–59 (Ind. Ct. App. 2003), citing Crafton v. Gibson, 752 N.E.2d 78, 96-98 (Ind. Ct. App. 2001). Subsequent Court of Appeals decisions followed suit. E.g., In re Guardianship of J.E.M., 870 N.E.2d 517, 520 (Ind. Ct. App. 2007), and In re Paternity of P.E.M., 818 N.E.2d 32, 37 (Ind. Ct. App. 2004). Then in K.I., this Court approved of the four McCune factors, and took the additional step of declaring that a grandparent-visitation order “must address” those factors in its findings and conclusions. 903 N.E.2d at 462 (emphasis added). In connection with that requirement, we further explained that the “Grandparent Visitation Act contemplates only occasional, temporary visitation that does not substantially infringe on a parent’s fundamental right to control the upbringing, education, and religious training of their children.” Id. (internal quotations and citations omitted).