C.A. v. C.P.

240 Cal. Rptr. 3d 38, 29 Cal. App. 5th 27
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal, 5th District
DecidedNovember 13, 2018
DocketC084473
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 240 Cal. Rptr. 3d 38 (C.A. v. C.P.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal, 5th District primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
C.A. v. C.P., 240 Cal. Rptr. 3d 38, 29 Cal. App. 5th 27 (Cal. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

Duarte, J.

*30This case involves a little girl bonded to and loved by each of her three parents.

The wife in a married couple (defendants C.P. and J.P., wife and husband) conceived the child with a coworker (plaintiff C.A.), but hid that fact from wife's employer and--initially--from husband. The marriage remains intact and wife and husband parent the child. For the first three years of the child's life, the couple allowed plaintiff to act in an alternate parenting role, and the child bonded with him and his close relatives. Defendants excluded plaintiff from the child's life when he filed the instant petition seeking legal confirmation of his paternal rights. The trial court found that wife misled the court at an interim custody hearing, prolonging what the court later viewed as an unwarranted separation. Despite this period of separation, the court found the child was still bonded to all three parents and found this to be a "rare" case where, pursuant to statutory authority, each of three parents should be legally recognized as such, to prevent detriment to their child. Defendants appeal. We shall affirm.

*31BACKGROUND

The child was born in July 2012 to wife, who was then and remains married to husband. In November 2015, plaintiff filed the instant petition to confirm his relationship with the child, change her name, and obtain paternity testing. After an interim order for paternity testing, a court trial was held, after which the trial court granted plaintiff some of the relief he sought.

Defendants do not explicitly attack the sufficiency of the evidence, the key facts were not disputed, and the trial court did not find defendants credible on some key points. In particular, the trial court faulted wife for her "misleading portrayal" that minimized plaintiff's involvement in the child's life at an earlier hearing.1 The minimization led the court to deny plaintiff's request for temporary visitation orders, a request that it otherwise would have found appropriate. But the court found plaintiff's involuntary separation from the child due to "lack of candor" by wife did not break the strong bond defendants had allowed plaintiff to develop with the child.

*41Defendants never questioned plaintiff's status as the child's biological father, a fact each defendant had known before the child was born. Wife led plaintiff to believe she was separated but continued to cohabit with husband without plaintiff's knowledge. Plaintiff and wife were coworkers, and wife wanted to ensure other coworkers did not find out about the affair, which caused plaintiff to refrain from seeking paternity leave from their employer. Plaintiff was involved with the child's early medical evaluations and treatment, openly held her out as his daughter, received her into his home, paid child support, and had regular visitation until defendants cut him off after he filed the instant petition. Plaintiff's close relatives (sister, nieces, and mother) also developed relationships with the child. Plaintiff had thought the child bore his last name until he saw a prescription bottle showing otherwise, when the child was about eight or nine months old.

Plaintiff had regular overnight parenting that increased over time to every other weekend, and saw the child "from time to time" during the week, from when the child was about seven months old until late in 2015, when this petition was filed.

When the child was about 18 months old, all parties participated in autism screening and therapy for her. Neither defendant refused plaintiff's informal child support payments, set in an amount determined by wife. Plaintiff only stopped paying when defendants refused to let him continue to see the child.

*32Plaintiff respected the marriage and wanted to co-exist with husband; in turn, husband was committed to maintaining his marriage and conceded that if the roles were reversed he would want to be recognized as a third parent.

The trial court found "no doubt" the child was "well bonded to [plaintiff] and his extended family" and that "he has established a strong, long and enduring bond with" her that defendants had allowed to form. Plaintiff and husband were each found to be a presumed father of the child. Weighing the two presumptions, the court found it appropriate to recognize all three adults as parents, otherwise the child would suffer detriment. The judgment declares that the child has three parents who shall share custody, with mediation to resolve any conflicts, and also adds plaintiff's last name to the child's existing set of names, though not as her last name.

Defendants timely appealed. We denied their interim petition for writ of supersedeas, but granted their request for calendar preference.

DISCUSSION

Defendants head four different claims in their opening brief. The root of all their claims is that the trial court erred in finding that plaintiff was a third parent.

We first explain that we presume the trial court's findings are supported by the evidence. ( Foreman & Clark Corp. v. Fallon (1971) 3 Cal.3d 875, 881, 92 Cal.Rptr. 162, 479 P.2d 362.) Although defendants purport to raise purely legal issues, "legal issues arise out of facts, and a party cannot ignore the facts in order to raise an academic legal argument." ( Western Aggregates, Inc. v. County of Yuba (2002) 101 Cal.App.4th 278, 291, 130 Cal.Rptr.2d 436.) "[I]n addressing [their] issues we will not be drawn onto inaccurate factual ground." ( Ibid . )

I

Three-Parent Finding

Defendants primarily contend the trial court should not have found plaintiff was a third parent under the relevant statutes, and make the subsidiary claims that such a finding interferes with the state's interest *42in preserving the institution of marriage and impinges on their parental rights. As we explain, we disagree. *33A. Preface

We begin with the observation that defendants repeatedly rest their arguments on an inaccurate premise, that because by statute husband is conclusively presumed to be the child's father, the child cannot have more than one father. In other words, they interpret the "conclusive" presumption to be an "exclusive" presumption, the application of which precludes the operation of any other presumptions of parenting. This view does not comport with the statutory scheme or extant precedent.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Rosales v. Janelle S. CA2/3
California Court of Appeal, 2024
In re J.F. CA2/5
California Court of Appeal, 2023
Estate of Franco
California Court of Appeal, 2023
Marriage of Hart CA4/1
California Court of Appeal, 2022
R.M. v. J.J. CA3
California Court of Appeal, 2022
In re Y.T. CA4/2
California Court of Appeal, 2021
Larry R. v. Superior Court CA5
California Court of Appeal, 2021

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
240 Cal. Rptr. 3d 38, 29 Cal. App. 5th 27, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ca-v-cp-calctapp5d-2018.