J.S. v. S.M.M.

67 So. 3d 1231, 2011 Fla. App. LEXIS 13899
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedSeptember 2, 2011
DocketNo. 2D11-959
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 67 So. 3d 1231 (J.S. v. S.M.M.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
J.S. v. S.M.M., 67 So. 3d 1231, 2011 Fla. App. LEXIS 13899 (Fla. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

J.S., the married husband, and C.L., the married wife, petition for a writ of certio-rari seeking to quash the trial court’s or[1232]*1232der that found that S.M.M., the putative biological father, had standing to pursue a paternity action concerning N.L., a child conceived and born while J.S. and C.L. were married. The trial court’s order included a requirement that N.L. and S.M.M. submit to DNA testing. Because the trial court’s order departs from the essential requirements of the law and results in harm that cannot be corrected on appeal, we grant the petition and quash the order.

J.S. and C.L. were married on September 20, 2005. N.L. was born on September 29, 2008. It is clear from these dates that J.S. and C.L. were married when N.L. was both conceived and born. J.S. was not present for N.L.’s birth because he was stationed out of state with the military, and C.L. refused to name the father at the hospital. Thus, the space for the father’s name on the birth certificate states, “mother refuses information on husband.” Nevertheless, the birth and N.L.’s neonatal treatment were paid for through military health insurance benefits available through J.S.’s active duty military status. Moreover, pursuant to section 882.013(2)(a), Florida Statutes (2008), J.S. is the “legal father” of N.L. Through this statute, the legislature has codified the public policy in Florida that the “legal father” of any child born of a married woman must be that woman’s husband unless a paternity action has been resolved prior to the child’s birth.

On May 27, 2009, J.S. filed a petition for dissolution of marriage from C.L. In that petition, he denied that any children were born of the marriage. However, J.S. subsequently dismissed the dissolution petition on November 27, 2009. J.S. and C.L. are still married, and no dissolution proceedings are currently pending.

During the seven months that the dissolution petition was pending, S.M.M. filed a paternity action, seeking to establish his paternity of N.L. and to establish visitation, child support, and the division of other expenses. Both J.S. and C.L. opposed this petition and moved to dismiss it for lack of standing. Purportedly in compliance with the supreme court’s opinion in Kendrick v. Everheart, 390 So.2d 53, 60-61 (Fla.1980), the trial court held an eviden-tiary hearing concerning whether S.M.M. had standing to pursue the paternity action. After considering the evidence presented, the trial court found that S.M.M. had standing, and it permitted the paternity action to proceed and ordered N.L. and S.M.M. to undergo DNA testing. J.S. and C.L. now ask this court to quash this order.

Review by certiorari is appropriate when an order departs from the essential requirements of the law and causes harm that cannot be remedied on direct appeal. See Dep’t of Revenue ex rel. T.E.P. v. Price, 958 So.2d 1045, 1046 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007); see also Allstate Ins. Co. v. Langston, 655 So.2d 91, 94 (Fla.1995); Martin-Johnson, Inc. v. Savage, 509 So.2d 1097, 1099 (Fla.1987). In this case, S.M.M. contends that this petition should be dismissed because J.S. and C.L. cannot establish irreparable harm. However, this court has held that an erroneous order for genetic testing “cannot be corrected through a direct appeal, for the improper genetic testing requiring a blood draw would have already been completed” and thus any error in the order “must be corrected through certiorari proceedings.” Price, 958 So.2d at 1046; see also State, Dep’t of Revenue ex rel. Sharif v. Brown, 980 So.2d 590, 590 (Fla. 1st DCA 2008) (holding that a potentially erroneous order requiring a mother and child to submit to genetic testing for a determination of paternity “threatens what we have held to be irreparable harm that cannot be cured on plenary appeal”); Dep’t of Revenue v. [1233]*1233Long, 937 So.2d 1235, 1237 (Fla. 1st DCA 2006) (holding that the fact of subjecting the child “to a potentially intrusive test ... is enough to constitute irreparable harm”); cf. Lohman v. Carnahan, 963 So.2d 985, 987 (Fla. 4th DCA 2007) (reviewing order denying motion to dismiss paternity action by certiorari). Therefore, the trial court’s order in this case, which denied J.S. and C.L.’s motion to dismiss by finding that S.M.M. had standing and which ordered potentially intrusive DNA testing of N.L., would result in irreparable harm if improper. Accordingly, we have certiorari jurisdiction over this petition.

Turning to the merits, we conclude that the trial court departed from the essential requirements of the law when it determined that S.M.M. had standing to challenge the paternity of N.L. — a child of an intact marriage. In this respect, this case is essentially indistinguishable from S.B. v. D.H., 736 So.2d 766 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999). In that case, the mother and father had a tumultuous relationship. They had married, divorced, remarried, separated, and reconciled. Id. at 766. During the parties’ separation, the mother conceived a child. Id. There was no dispute that this child was both conceived and born while the parties were married. Id. Nevertheless, S.B., the putative biological father, filed a paternity action seeking shared parental responsibility and visitation. Id. The trial court dismissed the petition, and S.B. appealed.

This court first noted that H.H., the married husband, was the “legal father” by virtue of the fact that he was married to the mother when the child was born. Id. at 767. We noted that the statutory provision making H.H. the “legal father” “recognizes the time-honored presumption of legitimacy.” Id. We also noted that “[tjhis presumption is so strong it ‘can defeat even the claim of a man proven beyond all doubt to be the biological father.’” Id. (quoting Dep’t of Health & Rehabilitative Servs. v. Privette, 617 So.2d 305, 308 (Fla.1993)). Because of the strength of this statutory presumption, this court held that “a putative biological father [] cannot maintain [a] paternity action concerning a child conceived by a married woman when both the married woman and her husband object.” Id.; see also I.A. v. H.H., 710 So.2d 162, 164 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998); Lohman, 963 So.2d at 987. Further, “[s]o long as the husband and wife are married and have no pending divorce proceeding, we will not authorize the trial court to conduct any qualitative evaluation of whether the marriage is ‘intact.’” S.B., 736 So.2d at 767; see also S.D. v. A.G., 764 So.2d 807, 809 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000). Thus, because D.H. and H.H. were married when the child was conceived and born and because they were unified in their opposition to S.B.’s petition to establish paternity, this court agreed with the trial court that S.B. had no standing to challenge the child’s paternity, and we affirmed the dismissal.

The facts in this case are legally indistinguishable. There is no question, and no dispute, that J.S. and C.L. were married when N.L. was conceived and born. While there was a dissolution case pending at one point, that case has been dismissed, and J.S. and C.L. are unified in their opposition to S.M.M.’s petition to establish paternity. Therefore, pursuant to the plain, unambiguous, and controlling holdings of S.B., S.D., I.A., and Lohman, S.M.M. had no standing to pursue this paternity action, and the trial court departed from the essential requirements of the law in finding otherwise.

In addition, the cases relied upon by S.M.M. are all distinguishable in legally relevant ways. In

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Bluebook (online)
67 So. 3d 1231, 2011 Fla. App. LEXIS 13899, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/js-v-smm-fladistctapp-2011.