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Published by the Indiana Office of Court Services

In re Visitation of C.R.P., No. 29A04-0812-JV-758, ___ N.E.2d ___ (Ind. Ct. App., July 20, 2009)

July 29, 2009 Filed Under: Civil Tagged With: Appeals, J. Kirsch

KIRSCH, J.
B.M., the paternal grandmother (“Grandmother”), appeals the trial court’s dismissal of her Verified Petition for Grandparent Visitation for lack of standing under the Grandparent Visitation Act (“GVA”). We restate the issue as whether a paternal grandmother has standing to petition for visitation with her grandchild when the mother of the child is deceased and the father voluntarily terminated his parental rights.
We affirm.
In December 2008, C.R.P.’s father, J.J.P (“Father”), pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of C.R.P.’s mother and was sentenced to twenty years in the Department of Correction. Father voluntarily terminated his parental rights to C.R.P. in January 2009, and the maternal aunt and uncle (“Adoptive Parents”) adopted the child.
Prior to Father’s guilty plea, Grandmother had filed her Verified Petition for Grandparent Visitation of C.R.P. under the GVA. Child services had already placed C.R.P. in the foster care of the Adoptive Parents. C.R.P. was also the subject of a simultaneous Child In Need of Services (CHINS) proceeding by the Adoptive Parents, seeking to adopt C.R.P. The parties moved for and the trial court granted the consolidation of both matters. The Adoptive Parents then challenged Grandmother’s standing under the GVA. The trial court dismissed Grandmother’s petition for lack of standing. Grandmother now appeals.
. . . .
As noted by the trial court, when read together, the statutes provide that a parent of the child’s parent may seek visitation rights if the child’s parent is deceased. The “child’s parent” referred to in code section 31-17-5-1 is the same person as the “child’s parent” referred to in code section 31-9-2-77. Therefore, the GVA confers standing only upon grandparents who are the parents of the deceased parent of the child. Here, Grandmother is not the parent of the child’s deceased parent, and she does not have standing under the statute to seek visitation. The trial court did not err when it dismissed Grandmother’s petition.
Affirmed.
RILEY, J., and MATHIAS, J., concur.

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