Background
D.J.L.’s paternal grandmother, Daina Norton, was appointed kinship guardian by a New Mexico court in 2016. The child’s paternal grandfather, Edward M. Tolliver, was not a party to that proceeding and received no rights or duties under the guardianship order. After Norton moved to Texas, she and her husband obtained a Texas order terminating the biological parents’ rights and adopting the child.
About eleven months after the Texas termination-and-adoption order, Tolliver sought a bill of review and filed a separate suit to modify the parent-child relationship, seeking shared custody. The trial court dismissed both actions for lack of standing. Tolliver appealed both dismissals; the court addressed the modification suit under this docket number.
The Court’s Holding
The court affirmed dismissal of Tolliver’s suit to modify the parent-child relationship. Under the Texas Family Code, a biological grandparent may not sue for possession of or access to a grandchild after both biological parents’ rights have been terminated or the child has been adopted.
The court held that because the termination and adoption remained in effect, Tolliver lacked standing to bring the modification action. In the companion appeal, the court vacated the bill-of-review judgment and rendered dismissal for want of jurisdiction because the challenge to the termination and adoption was filed outside the Family Code’s six-month period.
Key Takeaways
- A biological grandparent generally lacks standing to seek custody or access after termination of both parents’ rights or adoption.
- The validity of the termination and adoption controlled the standing analysis in the later modification suit.
- The court treated the six-month limit for challenging the termination and adoption as jurisdictional in the companion case.
Why It Matters
The decision illustrates the finality Texas law gives to termination and adoption orders. Once those orders are in place, relatives who lack an independent legal basis for access or possession may be unable to pursue a later custody-modification action.