Nevada family-law case summaries

This case involves a dispute over the adoption of a child, G.P., among the child's relatives. Before G.P. was born, the birth mother asked the child's step-great-grandmother and great-grandfather, Katherine and Michael, to take temporary guardianship. They agreed and obtained temporary guardianship from a Washoe County court. The child's grandparents, Angela and Randall, then filed their own competing petition for guardianship in the same court. While the guardianship dispute was pending, the birth parents signed written consents to terminate their parental rights and to allow Katherine and Michael to adopt G.P. Katherine and Michael then filed an adoption petition in Clark County, where they live. The Clark County court, unaware that a guardianship case was pending in Washoe County, granted the adoption. When the grandparents Angela and Randall learned of the adoption, they asked the Clark County court to set it aside under a procedural rule (NRCP 60(b)) that lets courts undo judgments in cases of fraud, misrepresentation, or misconduct. They argued the great-grandparents had hidden the existence of the Washoe County guardianship case. The Clark County judge agreed and set aside the adoption. The Nevada Supreme Court reversed. The central question was whether the grandparents had "standing" — that is, the legal right — to ask the court to undo the adoption at all, given that they were not parties to the adoption case. The Supreme Court explained that only parties to a case, people in close legal privity with parties, or nonparties whose own legal rights are directly affected by the judgment can file an NRCP 60(b) motion to undo it. The Court concluded that being a grandparent, by itself, does not give someone a legal interest in a grandchild's adoption sufficient to challenge it. Nevada's adoption statutes do not list grandparents among those entitled to notice or to object, and grandparents generally do not have a constitutional right to intervene in an adoption absent something extra, like a pre-existing court-ordered visitation right. The Court also held that simply having filed a guardianship petition that had not yet been decided created only a "prospective" interest — a possible future interest — which is not enough to confer standing to attack an adoption decree. Because Angela and Randall were not parties to the adoption, were not in privity with a party, and had no legal interest that was directly affected by the adoption decree, the Supreme Court held the district court should not have entertained their motion. The adoption stands.