Guest User 2022-02-18 Guest User 2022-02-18

Grandmother Loses Guardianship Rights Over the Child to the Mother of the Child

Here is a brief case summary of a recent Alberta Court of Appeal decision to uphold the Trial Judge’s decision to vary a Final Consent Parenting Order granting the Mother of the Child sole guardianship, thereby revoking the Grandmother’s guardianship.

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A young teen (the “Mother”) gives birth to a child at the age of 14, and the teen’s mother (the “Grandmother”) primarily cares for the new baby (the “Child”). The Grandmother became the Child’s guardian and primary caregiver.

The Mother and Grandmother had a strained and conflicted relationship, resulting in the Mother leaving the Grandmother’s home at the age of 17 to set up her own household with her then-boyfriend, who is now her fiancé.

After leaving the Grandmother’s home, the Mother sought greater contact and maternal responsibility for the Child, which the Grandmother opposed. After making numerous Court applications, the Mother and the Grandmother entered into a Final Consent Parenting Order in 2020, in which the Mother and the Grandmother were to have shared parenting of the Child.

The Mother and the Grandmother had great difficulty following the Final Consent Parenting Order, resulting in the Mother applying for sole guardianship for the Child and to be the Child’s sole caregiver. As the Final Consent Parenting Order was a “final” order, the Mother had to prove that there had been a change in circumstances.

At Trial, the Judge granted the Mother’s application, which ended the Grandmother’s guardianship and parenting rights over the Child .

The Grandmother appealed the Trial Judge’s decision to the Alberta Court of Appeal, arguing that the change in circumstances were not sufficient to justify the variation of the Final Consent Parenting Order, and she also disputed the weight that was given by the Trial Judge to certain pieces of evidence.

The Alberta Court of Appeal of Alberta disagreed with the Grandmother and denied the Grandmother’s appeal. The Alberta Court of Appeal upheld the Trial Judge’s decision to appoint the Mother as the Child’s sole guardian, which terminated the Grandmother’s guardianship over the Child, due to the dysfunctional relationship that existed between the Mother and the Grandmother.

The Alberta Court of Appeal agreed that the Mother and the Grandmother were unable to co-parent the Child as a result of their dysfunctional relationship. The Alberta Court of Appeal agreed that the “Final” Consent Parenting Order was not in the best interests of the Child and as such, the Final Consent Parenting Order had to be varied such that it would be in the best interests of the Child.

With respect to the weight of evidence, the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that it would not interfere with the weight given to evidence by the Trial Judge unless there was “a clear and palpable error, or a material misapprehension of the evidence”, which did not exist in this case. The Alberta Court of Appeal decided that the Trial Judge’s decision to end the Grandmother’s guardianship of the Child was well supported by evidence.

This was the case of KB v MDB, 2022 ABCA 31.