GRANDPARENT'S RIGHTS Mother and son can't move, grandparents won't allow it

A judge ruled the widow must stay put at least until the trial ends.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The grandparents of a 3-year-old boy have obtained a temporary order prohibiting their widowed daughter-in-law from moving to North Carolina, where she wants to start a life with her new fianc & eacute;.
The case is unusual, family law attorneys said, because it could put grandparents on equal footing with parents in child-rearing matters.
Bonnie Miller, the 32-year-old widow, said she never intended to prevent her in-laws from seeing Kevin. But a year after her husband, Jeff, died of leukemia, it was time to start fresh, she said.
"I never, in a million years, ever thought this was going to be an issue," Miller said Monday.
Judge Rita Donovan Hathaway of Westmoreland County, however, issued a temporary order April 29 that says Miller can't move more than 25 miles from the home she's already sold, at least until a June 4 hearing.
The judge also gave the grandparents more time with Kevin than they previously had.
Miller said she stayed in touch with her in-laws, Ronald and Rose Miller of Plum, Pa., after her husband died in March 2002, and she still wants them in Kevin's life.
Miller added that she doesn't know why they're trying to block her plans.
Rose Miller said she doesn't want to see Kevin taken from his relatives to a small town where he doesn't know anyone.
She declined further comment, other than to say that she and her husband are looking out for both Kevin's and Bonnie's interests. Their attorney, Carol L. Hanna, didn't return calls seeking comment.
Judge's reasoning
Judge Hathaway said she ordered Bonnie Miller not to move to North Carolina because if she moved it might be difficult to get her to return for the hearing.
"I have made no judgment that grandparents can prevent relocation," the judge said.
Joanne Ross Wilder, a Pittsburgh attorney and author of "Pennsylvania Family Law Practice and Procedure," said the judge's reasoning is beside the point.
"The troubling thing about the decision, however temporary, is it suggests that perhaps parents' rights are not paramount -- and that's a slippery slope," she said. "The court should not intervene unless there is some harm to the child."
Bonnie Miller, a dental hygienist, is now renting a furnished apartment -- she closed on her old house Friday and her belongings are packed away -- and her job in North Carolina is in limbo.
Under Pennsylvania law, grandparents may be given visitation or partial custody, or both, of a grandchild when their child is dead, when a court finds that is in the child's best interest and when it wouldn't interfere with the parent's relationship.
The terms have special meanings under Pennsylvania law. Partial custody means the right to take possession of a child away from the custodial parent for a time. Visitation means the right to visit a child -- not necessarily away from the parent.