The Ohio Supreme Court unanimously reversed a 2023 custody award to a Summit County girl’s paternal grandparents, ruling that a juvenile court must find a parent unsuitable on current evidence before placing a child with a nonparent. The girl, identified in court records as A.S., had already been returned to her mother and father after her mother completed a treatment plan.
Justices Say Old Findings Can't Substitute for New Evidence
The WFMJ report says the justices held that a juvenile court must find a natural parent unsuitable before awarding legal custody to a nonparent. They reversed the Ninth District Court of Appeals, which had upheld the grandparents’ custody award.
The case began with a 2017 ruling in which the Summit County Juvenile Court found A.S. dependent and her mother unsuitable because of substance abuse, according to the WFMJ account. In the later custody dispute, the Supreme Court said the juvenile court relied on that earlier finding instead of determining the mother’s suitability from the evidence before it in 2023.
A Constitutional Line on Parental Rights
Chief Justice Sharon L. Kennedy wrote that relying on the 2017 finding without a current determination violated the mother’s fundamental liberty interest in the custody of her child, the station reported. The ruling requires a finding of parental unsuitability based on current proof before a juvenile court awards custody to a nonparent, including a grandparent.
How an Earlier Custody Rule Fits
A separate Summit County case involved a different child and a disposition following a dependency adjudication. In In re E.B., the Ninth District Court of Appeals said that after an abuse, neglect or dependency adjudication, a decision about legal custody with a parent or relative was based solely on the child’s best interest. That was a different legal posture from the later dispute over the 2023 award, in which the Ohio Supreme Court required a current finding that the parent was unsuitable before custody could go to a nonparent.
An earlier phase of the case ended in 2019 after the mother completed a treatment plan, and the juvenile court restored custodial rights to both parents and closed the case. The grandparents later sought custody, won in juvenile court in 2023, and had the award upheld by the Ninth District before the Supreme Court reversed it.
The Lower-Court Ruling Reversed
The Supreme Court’s reversal overturned the 2023 custody award that the Ninth District had upheld.
The dispute had been on the Supreme Court's radar for months. A case preview from Court News Ohio described the matter as a Summit County woman's effort to regain custody of her daughter after battling addiction, framing the appeal around the fundamental question of what courts owe parents before taking their children away.
What the Ruling Means Going Forward
The decision sets a limit on how a juvenile court may use a parent’s past struggles in a later custody case: an earlier finding alone cannot establish present unsuitability. The court must assess the parent using current evidence before awarding custody to a nonparent. The ruling addressed the 2023 award; A.S. had already been returned to both parents after her mother completed a treatment plan.
