Third Party Custody and Visitation

On Tuesday, the Mississippi Court of Appeals decided Darby et. al. v. Combs et. al. located here.  This was a custody case between the paternal grandmother and the great grand parents.  Ultimately, the Court awarded joint legal and physical custody to the parties.  The Court of Appeals affirmed this decision and found that with the natural parent presumption gone with the natural parents, the trial court could award joint custody and visitation to third parties.  My reading of some of the language in this opinion seems to hint that so long as the natural parent presumption is gone, the court could in theory award visitation to various parties if it find that said visitation is in the best interest of the minor child.  This opinion has some of the best discussion I have seen concerning the custody statutes and the current state of the law concerning them.