Absentee dad got married, now wants custody

DEAR MRS MACAULAY, My daughter migrated and my grand-daughter, who is nine, has lived with me and my husband for almost three years. Her father rarely visited, but got married recently and suddenly wants full custody. Do we have any legal standing to prevent this?

From your very concise letter, I cannot say whether your daughter had applied for and obtained a legal order of custody, care and control of her child. I deduce that your grandchild lived with her mother, your daughter, for the first six years of life, until she migrated. I also conclude that your daughter left her child in yours and your husband’s care when she migrated, thus making you both the guardians of her child.

I assume that this was not done by a deed, but by word of mouth and the physical handing over of the child to you. You have also not stated the details of your daughter’s request. Was it until she made an application and obtained the necessary visa for her daughter to join her abroad, or was it until the child attains majority?

And also, was the “father” pursuant to the Registration (Births and Deaths) Act, registered as the father of the child? Or was he so declared by an order of a court? It seems that all arrangements were done with the absence and non-intervention of your grandchild’s putative father.

You also make no mention of whether he ever provided any maintenance for the child during the years the child has been with you and your husband, or while with your daughter. All these are pertinent questions as to his status, which the court ought to consider on his application for legal custody, whether full or joint, with you and/or the mother of the child. It seems to me that you have concluded that because your daughter is abroad, she cannot intervene in any application made by the father, or file an application herself for legal custody (which she should have done before her departure and during the years of the non-interest or non-involvement of the putative father).

But matters in the Family Court or the Supreme Court can be heard by video conferences/ Zoom when a party is abroad (or in Jamaica but unable to attend personally). There is therefore no reason why your daughter cannot act herself or join with you to intervene in any action by the father. The question you want answered is whether you and your husband as grandparents can intervene in …