Is it Abandonment to Leave a Child With Her Grandparents

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Texas

A bit of back info: mother dropped off daughter at grandparents over a year ago, and has not visited said daughter since summer 2014. Mother does have primary court ordered custody, father resides in Oklahoma. Father is going to court within this month for a temporary change of custody. Father wants to possibly file for abandonment, any thoughts?
Also, father does plan to file for primary custody. Mother of child has numerous warrants in various states, not sure if that will make any bit of difference either way in his case. Child is 12 years of age.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Quoting sally81725

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My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Texas

A bit of back info: mother dropped off daughter at grandparents over a year ago, and has not visited said daughter since summer 2014. Mother does have primary court ordered custody, father resides in Oklahoma. Father is going to court within this month for a temporary change of custody. Father wants to possibly file for abandonment, any thoughts?
Also, father does plan to file for primary custody. Mother of child has numerous warrants in various states, not sure if that will make any bit of difference either way in his case. Child is 12 years of age.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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I don't think that father has to file for abandonment. I think that father just has to file for custody based on the overall situation. However, I think it would be in father's best interest to hire an attorney to handle the case.

Has Dad had regular contact with her?

What is his end goal? Even abandonment is a tricky little thing - the state can certainly use it as a valid reason to....do whatever...but the other parent is remarkably lacking in choices. It does being much easier though if there's a stepparent adoption in the mix.

He really needs an attorney.

Yes father has regular contact with daughter. His end goal is to have daughter complete her school year where she's at, then move her in with him. Stepmother would most certainly adopt daughter, if she can, wouldn't that require for the biological mothers rights to be terminated?
Father does have an attorney.

Yes it would - and he needs to work with his attorney. We can't second-guess the attorney.

I respect that, thank you for your advice. Was just wanting to know if it seemed like the father had a decent case so far against the bio mother.

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Quoting sally81725

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Yes father has regular contact with daughter. His end goal is to have daughter complete her school year where she's at, then move her in with him. Stepmother would most certainly adopt daughter, if she can, wouldn't that require for the biological mothers rights to be terminated?
Father does have an attorney.

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I do not think that dad should or could go the abandonment/attempt at stepparent adoption at this point. I think that dad, properly represented, could get primary custody.

If stepmother does decide for adoption, that is much further down the road.
What reasons should father not go through with abandonment?

What do you mean by "go through with abandonment"?

Presumably dad's petition for modification of custody is premised upon the argument that the mother has 'abandoned' her custody of the child.

Leaving a child with a responsible adult, however, is not 'abandonment' within the context of laws criminalizing child abandonment.

When mother dropped daughter off at bio fathers parents home, she did not give any indication of returning. Biological mother does not financially support daughter. Biological mother does not have, and hasn't for over a year now, medical insurance on daughter.

I'm guessing no point in filing for abandonment if it looks as though judge will grant father primary custody of child.

What do you believe that it means to "file for abandonment"?

I am quite possibly wrong, but I assumed that for the father to get granted primary custody & for mother to only have supervised visitation, that it would be easier if father filed abandonment(proving mother unfit). Wouldn't father have to have grounds to get granted primary custody? Or would the mother not visiting or seeing the child be grounds enough?

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Father does not want bio mothers rights terminated.

Again, if the father is petitioning for custody based on the mother's leaving the child with the grandmother, he's alleging a form of abandonment to the court. He will raise any claims along that line along with anything else that may help persuade the court to accept his position under the best interest factors. That, however, doesn't change what he's doing -- filing for a modification of custody -- into some other form of legal action.

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Quoting sally81725

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I am quite possibly wrong, but I assumed that for the father to get granted primary custody & for mother to only have supervised visitation, that it would be easier if father filed abandonment(proving mother unfit). Wouldn't father have to have grounds to get granted primary custody? Or would the mother not visiting or seeing the child be grounds enough?

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Father does not want bio mothers rights terminated.

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Is there a reason for that? Dad doesn't need to prove anything. He files for primary custody, Mom will be served (and he really needs an attorney given that normal service isn't likely here). If she turns up in court, Dad has a huge ace up his sleeve.

Erm..sorry, I didn't see MKIA's post.

^^^ What he said.