White v. Jacobs

Opinion

ABBE, J.

We hold that in the absence of express statutory authority the superior court cannot entertain an independent action to order visitation of a grandchild by grandparents over the objection of the child’s parent or parents. We find it unnecessary to address any of the constitutional issues raised by appellant.

Appellant, Ms. Jacobs, is the mother of a minor child, Nicole, born in 1978. Respondents (the Whites) are the child’s maternal grandparents. The Whites brought an action seeking visitation rights with Nicole after a breakdown in their relationship with Ms. Jacobs. Ms. Jacobs and Nicole had resided for intermittent, substantial periods of time with the Whites from the time of Nicole’s birth until Ms. Jacobs’s marriage in early 1985.

Ms. Jacobs and Mr. Jacobs, the child’s stepfather,

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both objected to visitation by the Whites after earlier efforts to that end were unsuccessful. The hostility between the Jacobs and the Whites apparently resulted in the visitations with the Whites being emotionally traumatic for Nicole. The

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court granted the Whites’ request and gave them visitation one weekend day per month.

Any rights of grandparents to custody or visitation of grandchildren are provided by statutes recently enacted. The trial court, in granting visitation, relied on two: California Civil Code sections 197.5 and 4351.5, subdivision (b).

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Neither are applicable to an independent action to establish visitation rights with a grandchild who is the child of a living child of the grandparents.

Section 197.5

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permits the superior court to grant reasonable visitation rights to the grandparents of an unmarried child if the child’s parent is deceased and the deceased was a child of the grandparents. The section is inapplicable here.