Smith v. Jones

The appellant, Smith, appeals from a Probate and Family Court judgment dismissing her complaint seeking to be adjudged a de facto parent of Liza, her former partner’s adopted child. The trial judge found that Smith met her burden of proving many of the major elements of de facto parenting, including that she performed an equal amount or more of the caretaking of the child, and that she “participated in [Liza’s] life as a member of her family.” Nonetheless, he concluded that her status did not reach that of a de facto parent, basing his conclu*401sion on the absence of four criteria: “intent,…