In Minnesota, a district court has broad discretion to determine what is in the best interests of a child regarding visitation. The authority of the Court to consider grandparents when making visitation decisions is spelled out in Minnesota Statutes § 518.1752 which incorporates by reference the statutory provisions of Minnesota Statutes Sec. 257C.08.

257C.08 specifically allows the district court to consider a request (by petition) for grandparent's rights to visitation if the grandparents are the parents of a deceased parent of the child. It states specifically that:

If a parent of an unmarried minor child is deceased, the parents and grandparents of the deceased parent may be granted reasonable
visitation rights to the unmarried minor child during minority by the district court upon finding that visitation rights would be in the best interests of the child and would not interfere with the parent child relationship. The court shall consider the amount of personal contact between the parents or grandparents of the deceased parent and the child prior to the
application. M.S.A. §257C.08.

Moreover, Minnesota statutes also allows grandparents to file a petition for visitation as a separate action outside of a divorce, paternity action, annulment or legal separation if the minor child has lived with the grandparent's or even the great grandparent's for a year or more. If that occurs, and the parent subsequently decides to remove the child from that grandparent's home, the grandparents or great-grandparents may petition the district court for an order granting them reasonable visitation rights to the child.

(1) visitation rights would be in the best interests of the child; and

(2) such visitation would not interfere with the
parent-child relationship. The court must consider the amount of personal contact between the parents or grandparents of the
party and the child prior to the application.

(3) If a motion for grandparent visitation has been heard and denied, unless agreed to in writing by the parties, no subsequent motion may be filed within six months after disposition of a prior motion on its merits.

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