C.A. v. C.P.
240 Cal. Rptr. 3d 38, 29 Cal. App. 5th 27 (2018)
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Rule of Law:
Under California Family Code § 7612(c), a court may recognize more than two parents for a child if it finds that multiple individuals have valid parentage claims and that recognizing only two parents would be detrimental to the child. This is true even when one parent's claim is based on the conclusive marital presumption of paternity.
Facts:
- C.P. (wife), while married to and cohabiting with J.P. (husband), conceived a child with her coworker, C.A. (plaintiff).
- C.P. led C.A. to believe she was separated from J.P., but both C.P. and J.P. knew C.A. was the biological father before the child's birth in July 2012.
- For the first three years of the child's life, C.P. and J.P. permitted C.A. to form a parental relationship with the child.
- During this period, C.A. received the child into his home, openly held her out as his daughter, provided informal child support, was involved in her medical care, and had regular overnight visitation.
- The child formed a strong, enduring bond with C.A. and his extended family.
- After C.A. filed a petition to legally confirm his paternal rights, C.P. and J.P. cut off his contact with the child.
Procedural Posture:
- C.A. (plaintiff) filed a petition in the trial court to confirm his parental relationship with the child born to C.P. and J.P.
- The trial court issued an interim order for paternity testing.
- At an interim hearing, the court denied C.A.'s request for temporary visitation based on what it later identified as misleading testimony by C.P. (wife).
- After a full court trial, the trial court found that both J.P. (husband) and C.A. (biological father) were presumed fathers.
- The trial court entered a judgment declaring that the child has three parents (C.P., J.P., and C.A.) who would share legal and physical custody, finding that recognizing only two parents would be detrimental to the child.
- C.P. and J.P. (defendants/appellants) appealed the judgment to the Court of Appeal.
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Issue:
Does California Family Code § 7612(c) permit a court to recognize a biological father as a child's third parent, even when the child was born into an intact marriage and the mother's husband is the conclusively presumed father, if recognizing only two parents would be detrimental to the child?
Opinions:
Majority - Duarte, J.
Yes. California Family Code § 7612(c) permits a court to find that a child has more than two parents when recognizing only two would cause detriment to the child. The court reasoned that the 'conclusive' marital presumption of paternity establishing the husband as a father is not an 'exclusive' presumption that bars other parentage claims. Both the husband, under the marital presumption (§ 7540), and the biological father, who received the child into his home and held her out as his own (§ 7611(d)), had valid 'claims to parentage' under the statutory scheme. This triggered § 7612(c), which was enacted specifically for rare cases where a child has bonded with more than two parents and would be harmed by the loss of one. The trial court correctly weighed the factors, finding that the child had a significant, existing bond with all three adults and that severing her relationship with C.A. would be detrimental to her well-being.
Analysis:
This decision solidifies the application of California's three-parent law, establishing that it can override the historically powerful conclusive marital presumption of paternity. The ruling prioritizes a child's established emotional bonds and the avoidance of detriment over a rigid two-parent legal structure. It signals to lower courts that in complex parentage cases, the focus must be on the reality of the child's relationships, even within an intact marriage. This precedent reinforces a functional, child-centric approach to defining parenthood, moving beyond purely biological or marital definitions.
