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Texas Grandparent Rights
§ 35.7 Intervention in Suit Affecting Parent-Child Relationship

A grandparent may wish to intervene in a pending suit – such as a parentage suit, divorce, modification, or termination – to seek managing, joint managing, or possessory conservatorship or to request a modification of the terms of an order affecting the grandparent.

Other than interviewing in a suit to request possessory conservatorship, a grandparent has the right to intervene in a suit affecting the parent-child relationship if the grandparent could file an original suit to seek the same relief. Rule 60 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure allows a party to intervene subject to being stricken by the court for sufficient cause. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure 60; Metromedia Long Distance, Inc. V. Hughes, 810 S.W.2d 494, 497 (Tex. App. – San Antonio 1991, writ denied). A person is given the right to intervene if he or she could have brought the same action, or any part thereof, on his or her own or , if the action had been brought against the person, the person would have been able to defeat recovery or some part thereof. Metromedia Long Distance, 810 S.W.2d at 497. To intervene, a party must assert a claim arising from the same transaction or occurrence, and it must have a common question of law or fact with the original claim; an intervener need not be interested in obtaining or defending against all the relief demanded. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure 40(a).

A biological or adoptive grandparent may not request possession of or access to a grandchild if:

1. Each of the biological parents of the grandchild has died, had the person’s parental rights terminated, or executed an affidavit of waiver of interest in child or an affidavit of relinquishment of parental rights under Code chapter 161 that designates an authorized agency, licensed child-placing agency, or person other than the child’s stepparent as the child’s managing conservator; and

2. The grandchild has been adopted, or is the subject of a pending suit for adoption, by a person other than the child’s stepparent.

Tex. Fam. Code Ann § 153.434 (Vernon Supp. 2001).