Court Opinion

ID: 9570796
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:26:25.629993+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:16:06.995360
License: Public Domain

Yetka, Justice
(concurring specially).
I concur in the result reached by the majority because under the rules followed by this court on appellate review there are no grounds to reverse the trial court. This court cannot be a trier of fact.
However, while I am convinced that neither the common law nor the Minnesota statutory law requires that visitation rights be given the natural grandparents of a child held by adoptive parents, I believe the situation calls for some legislative action.
I fully understand that in many, if not most, adoptions it is deemed wise that the natural parents and grandparents have no knowledge as to who the adoptive parents are. However, in a situation such as this, where the natural parents and grandparents do in fact know where their children are and who has adopted them, I would think it appropriate that the juvenile court have authority as a part of its adoption decree to include a provision giving the grandparents visitation rights. There is no showing whatever that Bianca Niskanen does not truly love her grandchildren, and it is obvious that she fears losing all contact with them. The record shows the adoptive parents desired to deny her visitation rights completely. While the trial court made no findings in determining that Mrs. Niskanen should not be permitted to adopt her grandchildren, it may well have been influenced by her age and by evidence that she “had had trouble raising her own two children.” The former reason has some validity, but the latter from the record does not. Many parents *58love, respect, and do everything possible to raise their children properly, only to have them go wrong. I see nothing in the record which would justify finding Mrs. Niskanen at fault for what happened to her daughter and her daughter’s marriage. Grandparents sometimes are as much attached to their grandchildren as to their own children. I find the end result of this decision, which will have the practical effect of denying to a maternal grandparent all contact with her grandchildren, almost barbaric and one literally crying out for some legislative reform.