Legal Question in Family Law in California
I have permanent guardianship of my granddaughter from my son. We live in CA and my son lives in NC with his wife and other children. Her natural mother has no contact with her either and lost custody of her. I am writing a will and my question is, do I have authority to leave my granddaughter with her Aunt and not my son should death befall me and my husband? He is a long-haul trucker and has no meaningful relationship with her going months at times without contacting her and has been in jail before. My granddaughter has never met her siblings nor talked to her stepmother on the phone. My son and his wife have an EXTREMELY turbulent and off and on relationship and I fear that her going back to them would be detrimental since she has never even met her stepmother, all she knows are me, my husband and my 2 daughters and their children. My granddaughter would much prefer to move with her aunt who lives in San Jose if something happens to me (she is extremely close with her Aunt and Uncle and visit with them all the time and she is will and ready to take on the responsibility). My granddaughter has said on occasion that he "scares her" as he has always had a violent temper. My son has had 3 other children taken away by the state of CA for bad parenting and he is also a recovering drug addict and alcoholic (I have reason to believe he still drinks but no proof). The situation has recently gotten pretty serious because he has come to our home (something his trucking allows him to do) and he has started physical altercations with me and my husband, I would like to get this settled in a will, my wishes. He pays back pay to the state of CA for the financial help we received from the state since we have had her since she was one month old. What are my options here to ensure that she is not left to my son if something should befall me or my husband?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Unfortunately you cannot "will" a child to someone. If you were to die, it would be up to someone to petition to be the new guardian. It sounds like the. Aunt and uncle would have a good case, but there just is no way to do it by will.
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