Ballerino v. Ballerino

A judge in the Probate and Family Court granted the plaintiffs, the paternal grandparents of the minor female child of the defendant, visitation with the child. The judgment entered on the complaint of the plaintiffs for such visitation under G. L. c. 119, § 39D, the so-called grandparent visitation statute.3 The defendant thereafter filed a motion under Mass. R. Civ. P. 52 (b), as *1006amended, 423 Mass. 1402 (1996), and'Mass. R. Civ. R 59 (e), 365 Mass. 827 (1974), to amend the judgment or, in the alternative, for a new trial.4 The motion asserted, for the first time, that G. L. c. 119, § 39D,…