Davis v. Vaughn

KITCHENS, Justice,

for the Court:

¶ 1. In this custody dispute between the natural father and the maternal grand*35mother, the chancellor granted custody to the father, finding that the father had not deserted his child. Although the grandmother had stood in loco parentis to the child since the mother’s death, the chancellor correctly recognized that this alone could not overcome the natural-parent presumption. See Smith v. Smith, 97 So.3d 43 (Miss.2012) (reemphasizing that a third party’s in loco parentis status, standing alone, could not rebut the natural-parent presumption). Finding no error,…