Courtney Love, once again, has lost legal authority over her 17-year-old daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. A California court appointed Frances’s paternal grandmother Wendy O’Connor and her aunt Kimberly Cobain as temporary legal guardians. A hearing is currently scheduled for February 10, 2010.

Despite media speculation, Love’s attorney claims that the guardianship is not the result of an inability to parent on Love’s part but is merely because Frances prefers to live with her grandmother in Washington state.

“Frances is 17 and a strong-willed child, and this is a decision she made on her own,” the attorney told media. “No matter what, Courtney loves her daughter more than anything in the world.”

Love and her daughter are no strangers to the family court. Frances was born in August, 1992 and was almost immediately removed from the custody of Love and her father Kurt Cobain due to suspicions of severe drug use. It took several months before they were granted full custody of their daughter.

Cobain killed himself in 1994. In 2003, Love overdosed and was arrested for trying to break into an ex-boyfriend’s home. O’Connor was awarded custody of Frances while Love was in rehab. They then engaged in a protracted and very bitter court battle over who would retain guardianship of the then 11-year-old. In 2005, the court gave custody and guardianship back to Love.

Frances told a magazine reporter last year that O’Connor “is probably the person I respect most out of anybody in the world.”

It is important to note that no parental rights appear to have been terminated here. It is currently just a temporary court order. If Love has agreed to allow Frances to move in with O’Connor, it seems appropriate that O’Connor should have some legal authority over the child. Also important to note is the fact that Frances has a trust fund and the guardianship paperwork does NOT give O’Connor or Kimberly Cobain any authority over the trust.