Cravens v. Cravens

936 So. 2d 538, 2005 WL 2174425
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedSeptember 9, 2005
Docket2040004
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 936 So. 2d 538 (Cravens v. Cravens) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cravens v. Cravens, 936 So. 2d 538, 2005 WL 2174425 (Ala. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

936 So.2d 538 (2005)

Kassi Ray CRAVENS
v.
Chad Michael CRAVENS.

2040004.

Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama.

September 9, 2005.
Rehearing Denied December 16, 2005.
Certiorari Denied February 10, 2006.

*539 Christopher G. McCary of Legal Services Alabama, Inc., Anniston, for appellant.

Shannon L. Millican, Gadsden, for appellee.

Alabama Supreme Court 1050382.

PER CURIAM.

Kassi Ray Cravens ("the wife") appeals from a judgment entered by the Calhoun Circuit Court in which it declined to hold that DNA evidence rebutted the presumption that her former husband Chad Michael Cravens ("the husband") is the father of Jon Michael Cravens ("the child"), who was born during the marriage of the wife and the husband.[1]

The parties were married in August 2000. Thereafter, the wife gave birth to the child in October 2000. In December 2003, the husband sued the wife for a divorce on the grounds of an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage and incompatibility. Among other things, he sought pendente lite and permanent legal custody of the child. The trial court granted the husband pendente lite custody. Answering *540 the complaint, the wife denied that the husband is the biological father of the child. She also counterclaimed for custody of the child. Contemporaneously, the wife moved the trial court for a DNA test. The husband objected to the wife's motion on the grounds (1) that he was the biological father of the child and (2) that the child was born during the marriage. However, the trial court granted the wife's motion, and the husband gave a DNA sample for testing.

On May 5, 2004, the trial court held a hearing at which it received evidence ore tenus. The DNA test results, which were admitted by agreement of the parties, excluded the husband as the biological father of the child. However, despite the DNA test results the husband asserted that he was the legal father of the child. The wife admitted that the husband is a good father and that it would not be in the best interest of the child to sever the husband's relationship with the child. Furthermore, the wife testified that she had not previously filed a paternity action because the alleged biological father did not want to have a relationship with the child. At the close of the evidence, the trial court ordered the wife and the husband to alternate custody on a weekly basis until the trial court entered a final judgment.

On June 9, 2004, the trial court entered a final judgment divorcing the husband and the wife and awarding them joint legal and physical custody of the child. Noting that, because the child was born during the marriage, the husband was presumed to be the father of the child under Alabama statutory law, the trial court declined to hold that the DNA evidence had rebutted that presumption. The wife timely appealed.

On appeal, the wife argues that the trial court erred in declining to hold that the DNA evidence rebutted the statutory presumption that the husband was the father of the child. Specifically, she argues that she has standing to challenge the husband's paternity because, she says, she raised the issue during the divorce action. She further argues that her right to custody is superior to the husband's because, she says, a parent's right to custody is superior to that of a nonparent.

The Alabama Uniform Parentage Act ("the AUPA"), codified at § 26-17-1 et seq., Ala.Code 1975, establishes statutory criteria for determining the paternity of a child. In pertinent part, § 26-17-5(a)(1) states:

"A man is presumed to be the natural father of a child if any of the following apply:
"(1) He and the child's natural mother are or have been married to each other and the child is born during the marriage, . . . ."

(Emphasis added.)[2] Furthermore, § 26-17-6(a) states:

"A child, a child's natural mother, or a man presumed to be the child's father under subdivision (1), (2), or (3) of Section 26-17-5(a), may bring an action at any time for the purpose of declaring *541 the existence of the father and child relationship presumed under subdivision (1), (2), or (3) of Section 26-17-5(a), but for purposes of support, the action shall be brought before the child reaches the age of 19."

(Emphasis added.)

In Ex parte C.A.P., 683 So.2d 1010 (Ala.1996), the Alabama Supreme Court held that an alleged biological father did not have standing to challenge a child's paternity where the presumed father persistently asserted his parental status.[3] In Ex parte C.A.P., a man claiming to be the biological father of a child who was born while the mother was married to someone else sought to establish his paternity. The Alabama Supreme Court stated:

"`[T]he legal question is whether a man has standing to bring an action seeking to declare a child illegitimate and to have himself declared the father of that child. This is not permitted under the [AUPA], as long as there is a presumed father, pursuant to § 26-17-5(a)(1), who has not disclaimed his status as the child's father; consequently, another man . . . has no standing to challenge the presumed paternity of that child. Put another way, so long as the presumed father persists in maintaining his parental status, not even the subsequent marriage of the child's mother to another man can create standing in the other man to challenge the presumed father's parental relationship.'"

Ex parte C.A.P., 683 So.2d at 1011-12 (quoting Ex parte Presse, 554 So.2d 406, 418 (Ala.1989)) (emphasis added). In Ex parte C.A.P., the supreme court further stated that an unwed father's interest in establishing paternity is outweighed by "the obvious objectives of the Alabama Uniform Parentage Act, which are to provide for the psychological stability and general welfare of the child and to afford legitimacy to children whenever possible." Ex parte C.A.P., 683 So.2d at 1012.

In Hooten v. Hooten, 754 So.2d 634 (Ala. Civ.App.1999), a mother sought to reopen a determination of paternity in a divorce judgment in order to establish that the presumed father, the mother's former husband, was not the biological father of the child born during the marriage. This court held that "the mother had no standing to reopen the determination in the divorce judgment that the father is the biological father of the child, either pursuant to Rule 60(b)[, Ala. R. Civ. P.,] or pursuant to § 26-17A-1." 754 So.2d at 635. Furthermore, this court stated:

"Our supreme court has held that no one, including the mother of the child, has standing to challenge a presumed father's paternity as long as the presumed father persists in claiming paternity of the child. Ex parte C.A.P., 683 So.2d 1010 (Ala.1996); Ex parte Presse, 554 So.2d 406 (Ala.1989). Because the father persists in claiming his paternity of the child, the mother has no standing to challenge the paternity adjudication of the divorce judgment."

Hooten, 754 So.2d at 635 (emphasis added).

In B.N.P. v. D.M.P., 896 So.2d 505 (Ala. Civ.App.2004), this court affirmed a trial *542 court's judgment holding that a child, who was born during the marriage of the mother to the presumed father, did not have standing to contest the paternity of the presumed father after the presumed father and the mother had divorced.

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Bluebook (online)
936 So. 2d 538, 2005 WL 2174425, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cravens-v-cravens-alacivapp-2005.