A 2008 case out of San Antonio involved a set of facts where Child A was adopted by Cindy and Gary, Subsequently, Child A’s parents had another baby, Child B, who was born in 2005 and quickly removed from her home by CPS and placed with foster parents Michelle and Jerry.
The parent’s rights to Child B were terminated a year later and her foster parents filed a suit to adopt. Cindy and Gary intervened and asked for custody of Child B based on her relationship with their adopted child A. The trial court determined that Cindy and Gary lacked standing and denied custody as well as denied their request for visitation rights on behalf of the sibling.
They would have had standing under the Texas Family Code if they could have established a substantial past relationship with the child. Because they could not, they claimed they had a justiciable interest in the controversy sufficient to confer standing and that Michelle and Jerry had prevented them from developing a relationship with the child which would have otherwise qualified them under the Family Code.