## Facts

- Katherine Edwards and Robert Edwards married, divorced in 1996, and remarried in 1997.
- In December 1996, Katherine gave birth to K.A.E.; Robert was not the biological father.
- K.A.E. lived with Katherine and Robert from shortly after her birth and had minimal contact with her biological father.
- In the parties’ second divorce (2008), the district court granted Robert visitation with K.A.E.
- The district court also granted Robert authority to participate equally in major decisions about K.A.E.’s education, health care, and religious training, plus related access to information and records.
- The decree stated Katherine, as primary physical custodian, would make the ultimate decision if the adults disagreed and that Robert’s rights were subordinate to the biological father’s rights.
- Katherine appealed the award of nonparent decision-making authority.

## Issues

1. Whether a district court may award visitation to a step-parent with a stepchild as part of a divorce judgment.
2. Whether a district court may award a step-parent legal-custody-type decision-making authority over a stepchild absent findings sufficient to overcome the superior rights of the child’s legal parent(s).

## Decision

- The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the award of visitation to Robert.
- The court reversed the portion of the judgment granting Robert joint decision-making authority and other legal-custody-type rights regarding K.A.E.
- The court affirmed in part and reversed in part, preserving contact through visitation while removing parental decision-making powers from the nonparent.

## Legal Principles

- A court may, in limited circumstances, award visitation to a nonparent step-parent to protect a significant, established parent-like relationship and the child’s best interests.
- Legal-custody-type decision-making responsibility is materially different from visitation and more directly intrudes on the statutory and constitutional prerogatives of the child’s legal parent(s).
- A decree cannot confer joint, co-equal decision-making authority on a nonparent step-parent absent clear statutory authorization and findings that justify displacing the presumption favoring parental decision-making.
- Labeling nonparent authority as “visitation-related” does not control when the rights granted function as decision-making responsibility under the custody statutes.

## Conclusion

The court allowed the stepfather to continue visitation with the child he helped raise, but it disallowed a divorce decree’s attempt to give him joint authority over major upbringing decisions, holding that such nonparent decision-making power requires stronger legal grounding than the record and statutory scheme provided.


Edwards v. Edwards, 777 N.W.2d 606 (N.D. 2010)