Nevada family-law case summaries

This case involves a young boy, identified as B.S., whose grandparents asked a Nevada district court to make them his temporary guardians - meaning they would have legal authority to care for him while a longer-term guardianship request was being decided. According to the grandparents, B.S. had lived with them his whole life. His mother, who has a history of drug abuse and mental health problems, took him to Missouri in February 2024, where she had what the grandparents described as a psychotic or drug-induced episode and was hospitalized. Child protective services in Missouri and Nevada arranged for B.S. to return to live with his grandparents under a "Present Danger Plan" that barred the mother from unsupervised contact with him. That plan was set to expire on March 10, 2024, and the mother had told the grandparents she planned to take B.S. back. The grandparents filed for guardianship and asked the district court for a temporary order to protect B.S., enroll him in school, and obtain services for his autism. The district court denied the temporary guardianship request without holding a hearing, reasoning only that there was no medical emergency under one of Nevada's two temporary-guardianship statutes (NRS 159A.052). The Nevada Supreme Court held that this was a manifest abuse of discretion because Nevada has a second temporary-guardianship statute - NRS 159A.053 - that allows a temporary guardianship for "good cause" even when no medical emergency exists. The grandparents' filings showed good cause: the mother appeared to be presumptively unsuitable under Nevada law because she could not provide for the child's basic needs and posed a significant risk to his safety; she could not be located; B.S. had pressing schooling and special-needs issues; and the grandparents had cared for him most of his life. The Supreme Court therefore issued a writ of mandamus - a court order requiring a lower court to perform a duty it is legally required to perform - directing the district court to grant the temporary guardianship and to follow the procedural requirements (such as a follow-up hearing within 10 days and notice requirements) that NRS 159A.053 imposes once a temporary guardianship is issued.