Missouri Court of Appeals denies grandmother visitation rights. Katie R.

Link for Opinion: http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17191970844846018867&q=Missouri+child+visitation+rights+cases&hl=en&as_sdt=2,50&as_ylo=2011 

The Missouri Court of Appeals held in Hauter, et al v. Barnes, No. SD30830 S. Dist. 2d (Mo. Ct. App. 2011) found that the grandparent of said children (A, B, and C) does not get visitation rights even though grandmother raised A from birth to age 5 as legal guardian.

Father’s mother petitioned the court to have visitation rights to children and she felt the court erred in the ruling. Stating that the court misapplied the law and they abused its discretion in finding visitation to be in the best interest of the children.

There were numerous occasions when the grandmother would call hotline call for child abuse and neglect and they would come out to investigate and find that the call was unfounded. The first time was when the grandmother called reporting the parents abused and neglected child A. It turned out no evidence was found to support that.

The second time was during a scheduled visitation that was granted before this decision. Grandmother called the hotline again, this time saying the father sexually abused child B. That too was unfounded.

With all the false claims of abuse and neglect the parents of children A, B, and C, feel that it is not in the best interest of the children to have visitation with grandmother whether it is supervised or unsupervised. They feel that they cannot trust her with their children and have her not put ideas in their head. The oldest child (A) is already aware of relationship between the parents and grandmother. The parents did not want it to go further.

The courts ruled in favor of the parents, even though they were separated, they both wanted and agreed that their grandmother should not be allowed visitation rights.

Labels for post: grandmother, visitation, Missouri, and child.