This one has to do with post-adoption relationships between adoptive relatives. From The Weekly Case Summary from The National Center for Adoption Law & Policy at Capital University in Columbus, OH, week of July 14, 2009
The Court of Appeals of Ohio, Second Appellate District, reversed the juvenile court’s order that granted continued visitation rights to appellee adoptive mother’s ex-husband, holding that the juvenile court erred when it denied appellant adoptive parents’ motion to terminate appellee’s right of visitation. The appellate court found that under In re Adoption of Ridenour, 574 N.E.2d 1055, following a child’s adoption by strangers, a juvenile court cannot order that visitation with a relative or other person continue. In addition, the court held that former relatives and other persons do not have standing to seek visitation with an adopted child under O.R.C. § 3109.051(B), which allows relatives and others to seek visitation with a child during a divorce or child support case, as this statute only applies in domestic relations proceedings, not adoption. In this case, appellant adoptive parents moved to terminate appellee’s right to visitation with the child after the adoption was finalized, but the juvenile court ordered the prior visitation to continue as appellee had lived with and acted as a father figure to the child for a period of time prior to the adoption. Because the juvenile court did not have the ability to grant the order and appellee did not have standing to seek continued visitation, the judgment was reversed.
Link to the full opinion is here (in pdf).
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