Facts
The appellant [A.] is the grandfather of the children [D.] (born 2020) and [E.] (born 2022). The parents of the children, [B.] and [C.] , refuse [A.] personal contact with his grandchildren. [A.] subsequently filed a complaint with the Child and Adult Protection Authority of Basel-Stadt (KESB), which was however rejected. The appeal of [A.] against this decision to the Court of Appeal of the Canton of Basel-Stadt was also dismissed.
[A.] then appealed to the Federal Supreme Court in civil matters. He requested that the judgments of the lower instances be set aside and that he be granted appropriate contact with his grandchildren (three to four supervised visits per year).
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court dismissed the appeal. It stated that the mere interruption of contact as such does not constitute an extraordinary circumstance within the meaning of Art. 274a para. 1 CC, which would establish a right of contact for the grandfather. The decisive factor is that the parents fulfill their parental responsibility, which is the case here. Therefore, there is no reason to grant the…