Guam § 4202 - Definitions.

§ 4202. 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 develop-

ment 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 enlist-

ment in the Armed Forces of the United States, to major

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 relation-

ship has been terminated by judicial decree.

(h) Parent-child relationship includes all rights, privi-

leges, 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

necessarily limited to, the right to reasonable visitation,

consent to adoption, the right to determine the child’s reli-

gious 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.