Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Child Custody
Florida law generally recognizes the right of parents to raise their children without interference from third parties. This is why grandparent visitation rights in Florida are limited. Florida Statute Chp. 752 discusses limited circumstances in which a grandparent may seek visitation with children. Another route by which a grandparent may maintain visitation with a child in Florida is via enforcement of a court order entered in another state that has broader grandparent visitation rights. This was an issue Mattingly v. Hatfield, 1D2022-0039 (Fla. 1st DCA February 28, 2024).
The parties to this case originally all resided in Kentucky. The husband and wife were sued there by the material grandmother over visitation rights to their child. The Kentucky court granted the grandmother visitation rights which eventually had to be enforced via contempt proceedings wherein the parents were incarcerated for failure to follow the order. The parents moved to Florida and later filed for divorce. During the divorce proceedings, they requested to modify the Kentucky visitation order due to a substantial change in circumstances which included the divorce. The grandmother moved to dismiss the petition, and the trial court granted the motion, citing the mother’s statements in the Kentucky proceeding that she and the husband were planning to divorce. Thus the trial court reasoned the change relied on was not “unanticipated”. The parents appealed.
The appellate court affirmed the trial court’s ruling, but not because of the reason relied on by the trial court. The appellate court first noted that there was no jurisdiction for the Florida court to even entertain the petition for modification because under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, Kentucky maintained exclusive continuing jurisdiction over the child custody determination. This is because the grandmother was someone “acting as a parent” under the UCCJEA and she still lived in Kentucky.
The appellate court further noted “[I[t is not for us to question the wisdom of either the Kentucky grandparent visitation law or the Kentucky court orders granting it to the Grandmother. This is a consequence of the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the United States Constitution. Specifically, the supreme court has recognized that the out-of-state orders awarding grandparents child visitation are entitled to enforcement under the Full Faith and Credit Clause. Ledoux-Nottingham v. Downs, 210 So. 3d 1217 (Fla. 2017).”
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