In Re Thornton

This cause comes on appeal from a determination by the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, Division of Domestic Relations, Juvenile Branch, granting visitation rights to the maternal grandparents of a child adopted by his stepmother subsequent to his natural mother’s death.

Appellant, David Thornton, was married to the daughter of appellees, Robert and Lorelei Phillips. During that marriage, Joseph James Thornton was born. In 1977, appellant’s wife, the natural mother of Joseph James Thornton, died. At the time, Joseph was two years of age. For two years subsequent to their daughter’s…