21st Century Family Complications For A Presumed Father.

These are the facts:  before baby Donald was born, his mother, Mary, married Roger, and it is Roger’s name on Donald’s birth certificate. Victor has never met Donald, who is now almost two years old, but Victor claims to be Donald’s father. Victor petitioned the superior court to establish his fatherhood. Mary moved to dismiss the proceedings on the ground that Victor has no standing to bring the action. Family Code section 7611, sets out the rebuttable presumption that a man is the natural father of a child if he meets any of several conditions, including, most commonly, “(a) He and the child’s natural mother are or have been married to each other and the child is born during the marriage . . .” or “(d) He receives the child into his home and openly holds out the child as his natural child.” There is no question but that Roger qualifies as a presumed father of Donald under both alternatives, as the trial court held. The appellate court reversed, but warned: “The fact that Victor has standing to assert his claim to fatherhood does not mean that his claim necessarily has merit. Assuming that he can establish his biological paternity, he must also carry the burden of proving that he is entitled to the rights of a presumed father of Donald. Although he undoubtedly cannot establish that he has ‘receive[d] the child into his home’ as required by section 7011, subdivision (d), he may be able to prove that . . . that despite his best efforts he was prevented by Mary from doing so and that he has nonetheless ‘openly [held] out the child as his natural child” and attempted to assume the obligations of parenthood. If Victor can prove that he ‘acted as promptly as was reasonably possible to establish that he is [Donald’s] father, and that [Mary’s] conduct had unilaterally precluded [him] from meeting the statutory requirements for the status of presumed father,’ he will be entitled to the rights of a presumed father.” (V.S. v. M.L. (Cal. App. First Dist., Div. 3; December 27, 2013) 222 Cal.App.4th 730, [166 Cal.Rptr.3d 376].)