Background
Father and Mother initially entered a shared-parenting agreement for their child. In August 2024, the child’s maternal grandmother, who lives in Texas, moved to intervene and sought temporary and legal custody, alleging that Mother had abandoned the child and expressing concerns about Father’s household. The parties agreed that Grandmother would have temporary custody while the dispute proceeded.
After trial, a magistrate awarded legal custody to Grandmother. The juvenile court ultimately adopted that decision over Father’s objections. Although the court found that the child was thriving with Grandmother in Texas and that returning the child to Cleveland would be detrimental at that time, it expressly found that Father was not unsuitable, had not abandoned the child, and had not relinquished custody.
The Court’s Holding
The Eighth District reversed and remanded, ordering the juvenile court to grant Father legal custody. In a custody dispute between a parent and a nonparent, a juvenile court must first find the parent unsuitable before it may award custody to the nonparent.
The court held that the juvenile court abused its discretion by awarding custody to Grandmother after expressly finding Father suitable. The child’s progress in Grandmother’s care and a best-interests-style assessment could not substitute for the required finding that Father had abandoned the child, relinquished custody, was unable to provide care or support, or was otherwise unsuitable.
Key Takeaways
- A suitable parent has a paramount right to custody over a nonparent.
- A court must make a parental-unsuitability finding before considering nonparent custody.
- Evidence that a child is thriving with a nonparent does not alone justify displacing a suitable parent.
Why It Matters
The decision reinforces that Ohio courts cannot use a generalized best-interests analysis to award legal custody to a nonparent over a parent who has not been found unsuitable. The constitutional and state-law preference for parental custody remains controlling at the threshold stage of a parent-versus-nonparent custody dispute.