Kleinsasser

This is a child custody proceeding brought by stepmother against mother in the wake of the illness and death of the child’s father. When his father died, the child, E, was seven years old and had lived with his father and stepmother for four years. Because stepmother had a parental relationship with E, the trial court was called on to decide whether stepmother had rebutted the presumption provided in ORS 109.119(2)(a) that mother, the legal parent, “acts in the best interest of the child.” The trial court concluded that stepmother had rebutted the presumption and awarded both temporary and…