Definitions

When used in this Article, unless the text otherwise requires:

(a)Court means the Superior Court of Guam.

(b)Child means a person less than eighteen

(18)years of age.

(c)Adult means a person eighteen

(18)years of age or older.

(d)Legal custody means a status created by court order embodying the following rights and responsibilities:

(1)the right to have the physical possession of the child;

(2)the right and the duty to protect, train and discipline the child; and

(3)the responsibility to provide the child with food, shelter, education and ordinary medical care, provided that such rights and responsibilities shall be exercised subject to the powers, rights, duties and responsibilities of the guardian of the person and subject to residual parental rights and responsibilities if these have not been terminated by judicial decree.

(e)Guardianship of the person with respect to a child means the duty and authority to make important decisions in matters having a permanent effect on the life and development of the child, and to be concerned about the general welfare of the child. It includes but is not necessarily limited either in number or kind to:

(1)the authority to consent to marriage, to enlistment in the Armed Forces of the United States, to major COL 6/21/2023 CH. 4 PARENT AND CHILD medical, psychiatric and surgical treatment, to represent the minor in legal actions, and to make other decisions concerning the child of substantial legal significance;

(2)the authority and duty of reasonable visitation, except to the extent that such right of visitation has been limited by court order;

(3)the rights and responsibilities of legal custody except where legal custody has been vested in another individual or the Division of Children’s Wellness;

(4)when the parent-child relationship has been terminated by judicial decree with respect to the parent, or only living parent, the authority to consent to the adoption of the child and to make any other decision concerning the child which the child’s parents could make.

(f)Guardian ad litem means a person appointed by the court to protect the interest of a child or an incompetent in a case before the court.

(g)Parent means:

(1)the mother; or

(2)the father as to whom a child is legitimate; or

(3)a person as to whom a child is presumed to be a legitimate child; or

(4)an adoptive parent but such term does not include a parent as to whom the parent-child relationship has been terminated by judicial decree.

(h)Parent-child relationship includes all rights, privileges, duties and obligations existing between parent and child, including inheritance rights.

(i)Residual parental rights and responsibilities means those rights and responsibilities remaining with the parent (where there has not been termination of the parent-child relationship by judicial decree) after the transfer of legal custody and guardianship of the person, including but not COL 6/21/2023 CH. 4 PARENT AND CHILD necessarily limited to, the right to reasonable visitation, consent to adoption, the right to determine the child’s religious affiliation and the responsibility for support.

(j)Protective supervision means a legal status created by court order in proceedings not involving violations of law but where the legal custody of the child is subject to change, whereby the child is permitted to remain in his home under the supervision of the Division of Children’s Wellness and is subject to return to the court during the period of protective supervision.

(k)Relative to the child within the second degree either by blood or affinity includes stepparents, sisters, brothers, grandparents, aunts and uncles.

(l)Division means Division of Children’s Wellness.