The difficult relationship between parents and grandparents is not enough to object the right...

The difficult relationship between parents and grandparents is not enough to object the right of the children to maintain a personal relationship with their ascendants

Through a decision dated October 12, 2017, the Court of cassation stated that the bad relationship between parents and grandparents was not in itself enough to affect the right of the children to maintain a personal relationship with their ascendants.

Article 371-4 of the Civil Code indeed states that the child has a right to maintain personal relationships with his ascendants and that only the interest of the child can prevent the exercise of this right. The family judge can thus have to set the conditions of the relationship between the child and a third party, parent or not, “in particular when this third party has resided in a stable manner with him and one of his parents, has provided for his education or his establishment, has supported him, and has developed lasting ties of affection”.

In this case, the grandmother of three grandchildren had seized the family judge in order to gain access to them. The mother, her daughter, objected to this access on the grounds of their bad relationship and in particular the demeaning attitude of the grandmother towards her in the presence of the children.

The Court of Appeal considered that this bad relationship was not sufficient to put a stop to the relationship of the grandmother with her grandchildren considering that she had always been very involved in their lives, attentive and affectionate since their birth, despite the difficult relationship with her own daughter. The Court found that the interest of the children was not an obstacle to their right to maintain relationship with their ascendant. The Court of cassation rejected the appeal, considering the decision to be legally justified.