JERE FITTS AND JANE FITTS, APPELLANTS,
v.
ANNA POE, APPELLEE
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The court held that section 752.01(1)(a), Florida Statutes (1995), which permits grandparent visitation when a parent is deceased, is unconstitutional.
[1] A statute permitting grandparent visitation when it is in the best interest of the child and one or both of the child's parents are deceased impermissibly infringes on th…
[2] The fundamental rights of privacy of a natural parent in an intact family are the same as the fundamental rights of privacy of a widowed parent.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAppellants, the natural father and adoptive mother, appeal an order awarding visitation rights to Anna Poe, the natural maternal grandmother, after th…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
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PETERSON, Judge.
Jere Fitts, the natural father and Jane Fitts, his wife, the adoptive mother, appeal an order awarding visitation rights to Anna Poe, the natural maternal grandmother. Poe’s daughter, the natural mother, died on August 1,1995. We reverse.
In Beagle v. Beagle, 678 So. 2d 1271 (Fla.1996), the supreme court found paragraph (l)(e) of section 752.01, Florida Statutes (1995), to impermissibly infringe on the right to parent a child free from governmental intervention, a right protected by Article I, Section 23 of the Florida Constitution. Sub-paragraph (l)(e) of the statute permitted visitation by a grandparent when it was in the best interest of the child, the minor lived with both of his natural parents, and at least one of those parents had prohibited a relationship between that minor child and the grandparent.1 The subparagraph in issue in this case is section 752.01(l)(a), which permits visitation by a grandparent when it is in the best interest of the child and one or both of the child’s parents are deceased.2 We find paragraph (l)(a) of the statute is likewise unconstitutional because we are unable to discern any difference between the fundamental rights of privacy of a natural parent in an intact family and the fundamental rights of privacy of a widowed parent. Beagle, see Ward v. Dibble, 683 So. 2d 666, n. 2, (Fla. 5th DCA 1996). Accordingly, the trial court’s order awarding visitation to Poe is reversed.
REVERSED.
GRIFFIN, C.J., and THOMPSON, J., concur. . We note the court, in addressing the question of whether the state may impose grandparental visitation upon an intact family, suggested that the statute may have passed constitutional muster if, rather than the best interests standard, the statute had permitted court imposed visitation upon a finding of harm to the child if such visitation was withheld.
. While the father in the instant case has remarried and his wife has adopted the children in question, the grandparental rights in this case emanated from the father’s widowhood. Cf. §§ 752.01 & 752.07, Fla. Stat. (1995).
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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von Eiff v. Leonor Azicri and Roberto Azicri, 720 So. 2d 510 (Fla. 1998)…he Fourth and Fifth Districts have found subsection (l)(a) to be an unconstitutional infringement on a parent’s right of privacy. See Russo v. Persico, 706 So. 2d 933, 934 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998), review granted, 722 So. 2d 193 (Fla.1998); Fitts v. Poe, 699 So. 2d 348, 348 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997). The First District has aligned itself with the Von Eiff majority, certifying conflict with Fitts. See S.S. v. J.M.N., 703 So. 2d 1212, 1212 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997); see also Sketo v. Brown, 559 So. 2d 381 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990). […
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Williams v. Spears, 719 So. 2d 1236 (Fla. 1st DCA 1998)…found section 752.01(1)(a) unconstitutional “because we are unable to discern any difference between the fundamental rights of privacy of a natural parent in an intact family and the fundamental rights of privacy of a widowed parent.” Fitts v. Poe, 699 So. 2d 348, 348-49 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997). The Fourth District followed Fitts and found the statute unconstitutional in Russo v. Persico, 706 So. 2d 933 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998). Here we are concerned with the constitutionality of section 752.01(1)(b) in a factual si…
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S.S. v. J.M.N., 703 So. 2d 1212 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997)…PER CURIAM. We deny the petition for a writ of certiorari on the authority of Sketo v. Brown, 559 So. 2d 381 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990). However, we certify conflict with Fitts v. Poe, 699 So. 2d 348 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997), and we certify the same question certified in Von Eiff v. Azicri, 699 So. 2d 772, 778 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997): MAY THE STATE CONSTITUTIONALLY ALLOW REASONABLE GRANDPARENT VISITATION WHERE ONE OR BOTH PARENTS OF A CHILD ARE DECEASED…
Previewing 3 of 8 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Beagle v. Beagle, 678 So. 2d 1271 (Fla. 1996)
- Ward v. Dibble, 683 So. 2d 666 (Fla. 5th DCA 1996)