Near the end of my husband's previous marriage, guardianship was granted to the child's grandparents.

In my husband's petition for divorce, a visitation schedule was requested. The petition was served to all parties, including the child's guardians. No one responded to the the petition or filed an opposition with the court. So the judge signed Divorce Decree with the visitation schedule included.

Since the Decree there has been no problems; however the guardians are now planning on moving and changing the schedule.
In recent conversations with the guardians regarding the changes and plans of moving out of state, the guardians say that the divorce decree can not modify the guardianship and that it is not enforceable at all.

Is the schedule from the Divorce enforceable?

It is indeed enforceable. That is the point of having them drawn up.

In my state anyway, there are usually two separate schedules... one set for the instance of both sets of "guardians" living within 500 miles of one another, usually consisting of every other weekend and every Wednesday or something to that effect, with holidays divided evenly, and something like 30 days each summer.

The other set of instructions is for cases where there is more than 500 miles separating the visiting guardian, and the children. Those usually skip the Wednesday thing, but allow the guardian a couple of weeks during Christmas break, and 45 days in the summer. These instructions usually even spell out which guardian will foot the gas bill involved in fulfilling the visitation.

The papers are only there for times of dispute, and should be used in such times... I'd suggest you contact an attorney.

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Originally Posted by foxxxy

Near the end of my husband's previous marriage, guardianship was granted to the child's grandparents.
In my husband's petition for divorce, a visitation schedule was requested. The petition was served to all parties, including the child's guardians. No one responded to the the petition or filed an opposition with the court. So the judge signed Divorce Decree with the visitation schedule included.

Since the Decree there has been no problems; however the guardians are now planning on moving and changing the schedule.
In recent conversations with the guardians regarding the changes and plans of moving out of state, the guardians say that the divorce decree can not modify the guardianship and that it is not enforceable at all.

Is the schedule from the Divorce enforceable?

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The guardians can't unilterally change the schedule. It has to go back to Court. Your husband doesn't have to wait for them to make the move and then chase them. He should consult with an Attorney and then file a Motion based on whatever evidence he has that they plan to move.

Of course, the move has to be substantial - if they move 10 minutes away (or something similar) I don't see that it's substantial enough to warrant a change in the order.

I would agree that the divorce does not change the guardianship agreement; however, the visitation schedule is covered in the divorce which "rules" visitation.

And in fact, they need to go back to court if there is not a clause to stop the move ( if the move is out of the area)

If he is visiting on a regular basis, he can actually stop them from moving if it is going to interfere with his rights to visti.

I have to ask, why has he not went back to court to get custody of his own children

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Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

And in fact, they need to go back to court if there is not a clause to stop the move ( if the move is out of the area)

If he is visiting on a regular basis, he can actually stop them from moving if it is going to interfere with his rights to visti.

I have to ask, why has he not went back to court to get custody of his own children

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Actually if you read through old posts there are more than a few family law issues involved. I'm not certain that some of these threads shouldn't be combined for background purposes. So far they have not been linked and info requested to give an opinion was not provided. I don't know which child this particular thread is referencing.

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/family...wn-187738.html

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Originally Posted by JudyKayTee

The guardians can't unilterally change the schedule. It has to go back to Court. Your husband doesn't have to wait for them to make the move and then chase them. He should consult with an Attorney and then file a Motion based on whatever evidence he has that they plan to move.

Of course, the move has to be substantial - if they move 10 minutes away (or something similar) I don't see that it's substantial enough to warrant a change in the order.

I would agree that the divorce does not change the guardianship agreement; however, the visitation schedule is covered in the divorce which "rules" visitation.

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Thank you for your answer JudyKayTee!

Yes the move is out of the state...

They aren't planning on moving for 6 months + but before this move, they are changing the visitation schedule. They just told us that we won't see the child for 3 weeks. When we reference the visitation schedule in the divorce, the grandma says that the schedule is not enforceable. She laughs at it and says that she didn't make an issue about it when she received the petition because she was "humoring" us... and that she knows that we can not enforce the schedule because the schedule was added after the guardianship was ordered...

In the very near future my husband and I plan to go into court for a complete modification of custody (modifying it so we have primary custody). We already know that the modification is going to be costly. I am trying to find out if the divorce schedule is enforceable so that we don't get robbed of our vistitation with the child while we are waiting to go into court for the modification.


Thanks

Enforceable, yes, but it can take months to enforce them, you file in court to have a hearing to have them ordered to allow visits and/or to find them in contempt of court.

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Originally Posted by foxxxy

In the very near future my husband and I plan to go into court for a complete modification of custody (modifying it so we have primary custody). We already know that the modification is going to be costly. I am trying to find out if the divorce schedule is enforceable so that we don't get robbed of our vistitation with the child while we are waiting to go into court for the modification.


Thanks

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Excellent - and I think that the Court proceeding may very well take away the Grandmother's laughter.

I don't know how long the child has been with the Grandparents but the Courts may do some sort of shared custody for a while until the child is 100% comfortable in your home.

Obviously the sooner you act the better or you'll be trying to bring the child back instead of keeping him/her there in the first place.

Good luck.

I say don't wait. File for modification of the custody agreement now.

But I have to agree with the others. Grandma has it backwards. If the guardianship was granted AFTER the divorce decree was finalized, then it could supercede the decreee. But if guardianship was granted BEFORE, and the guardians were a party to the custody/visitation agreement or did not protest it, then cannot modify it without court approval.

But you can't wait on this. If Grandma refuises to adhere to the court ordered visitation, the first time she refuses to let you your husband see the child, you march into court asking the court to hold Grandma in contempt of court. At that time, it the imepending move should be mentioned and the judge should be asked to issue an injunction against it.

But it would still be better if you just file for custody now.