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©2007 The Legal Intelligencer Online
Page printed from: http://www.thelegalintelligencer.com
Parental Separation Must Be Ongoing
When Grandparents’ Petition for Custody
Stephanie Lovett
05-22-2007
Grandparents seeking custody of or visitation rights to grandchildren can only petition for those rights at the time the children’s parents have been — and remain — separated for six months or more, the Superior Court has ruled in an issue of first impression.
In so ruling, the court denied the petition of a man seeking standing to gain visitation rights with his step-granddaughter, whose parents had separated and then reconciled.
The finding boiled down to a “plain language” reading of the relevant section of Pennsylvania’s Custody and Grandparent’s Visitation Act, which the court said showed that for act to apply, the parents must still be separated when the petition is filed.
“The GVA only applies where parents separated at least six months before the filing of the custody petition and remain separated at the time the petition is filed,” Senior Judge Justin Morris Johnson wrote in Helsel v. Puricelli.
Daniel V. Helsel had appealed an order by the Court of Common Pleas of Cambria County that had denied him standing to seek visitation rights to see his 6-year-old step-granddaughter Sophia.
The girl’s parents, Robert and Denise Puricelli, had separated in May 2004, but then reconciled in May 2005. Apparently unaware of the reconciliation, Helsel filed a complaint for visitation rights to see Sophia in January 2006, according to the opinion.
According to the Puricellis’ attorney, Andrew Gleason, Helsel was Denise’s stepfather and had adopted her when she was young.
Gleason, of Gleason McQuillan Barbin & Markovitz in Johnstown, said since Denise’s childhood there had been a lot of contention between her and Helsel.
Denise had testified that she “despised” Helsel, according to court papers.
Gleason said Denise’s mother — and biological grandmother of Sophia — was not a party to the case.
In July 2006, a master found that because the Puricellis had reconciled, Helsel was without standing to seek visitation, according to the opinion.
Cambria County Judge F. Joseph Leahey agreed, and Helsel appealed to the Superior Court, the opinion said.
The Superior Court noted that the question of whether a grandparent had standing to seek visitation where the grandchild’s parents had separated for more than six months, but had reconciled when the grandparent sought visitation rights in accordance with the Grandparents Visitation Act, was an issue of first impression for the court.
The section of the Grandparents Visitation Act at issue, the court said, is entitled “When parents’ marriage is dissolved or parents are separated.”
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