McIntyre v. Crouch

780 P.2d 239, 98 Or. App. 462
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedSeptember 13, 1989
Docket2109-F; CA A44574
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 780 P.2d 239 (McIntyre v. Crouch) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McIntyre v. Crouch, 780 P.2d 239, 98 Or. App. 462 (Or. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinions

[464]*464NEWMAN, J.

In this filiation action, ORS 109.124 et seq, petitioner appeals a summary judgment that declared that he has no parental rights as to the child that respondent, an unmarried woman, conceived by artificial insemination with petitioner’s semen. Respondent contested petitioner’s action to be declared the child’s father. The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment. Petitioner assigns as errors that the court granted respondent’s motion and denied his motion. The court held that there was no genuine issue of material fact, that ORS 109.239 bars petitioner from obtaining parental rights and that, as applied to him, it is constitutional. We reverse.

To qualify under the filiation statute as an initiating party and be declared a father, see ORS 109.125(e) and ORS 109.155, petitioner must show that ORS 109.239 does not bar him. It is undisputed that, with respondent’s knowledge, petitioner voluntarily gave his semen to her and that she inseminated herself without the supervision of a physician. The child was conceived as a result of the insemination. Petitioner and respondent were acquainted, but were not married to each other or to anyone else. Petitioner pleaded, and respondent denied in her answer, that he gave his semen to her in reliance on an agreement with her that he “would remain active” in the child’s life and “participate in all important decisions concerning the child” and that he would have visitation rights one weekend each month and for six consecutive weeks each summer. Petitioner also pleaded, and respondent also denied in her answer, that he is ready, willing and able to accept the same responsibility for the support, education, maintenance and care of the child and for pregnancy related expenses as he would have if the child were born in lawful wedlock.

Five days before the hearing on the motions for summary judgment, petitioner served affidavits. They described the agreement and asserted that petitioner and respondent made it before he donated his semen, that he gave his semen in reliance on it and that he is ready, willing and able to undertake the responsibilities for the support, education, maintenance and care of the child as if it were born to him in marriage or as a result of sexual intercourse between him and respondent. Respondent did not file counteraffidavits. At the hearing, the court orally allowed respondent’s motion and denied petitioner’s.

[465]*465On April 22, petitioner moved for reconsideration. In support of his motion, his counsel submitted an affidavit:

“I appeared before the Court on April 13,1987, at 1:30 P.M., the hour set for hearing on the cross-Motions for Summary Judgment. The [court] announced that [it] had not received petitioner’s response to the respondent’s Motion for Summary Judgment, the Affidavits filed in support of petitioner’s response, or petitioner’s Memorandum of law. I advised the Court that the said documents had been placed in the United States mail at Portland, Oregon on April 8, 1987. Respondent’s counsel * * * stated that his copies of the documents had been received at his office and he reviewed them the morning of April 13, 1987. At the time of the hearing, I provided the Court additional copies of petitioner’s Response, Affidavits and Memorandum. * * *
“Respondent’s counsel stated that there was an issue of fact in that his clients would dispute that there was an agreement between petitioner and respondent as was alleged in the Petition for Filiation and in the Affidavits filed by petitioner. I stated that if respondent disputed the facts alleged by petitioner, then petitioner demanded a jury trial to determine the facts.”

On May 18, the court heard arguments on the motion to reconsider. The court entered a judgment on May 27 and an amended judgment on June 8 that each granted respondent’s motion for summary judgment and denied petitioner’s. Each judgment recited that the court had considered the “affidavits filed in support of the motions.” Petitioner appeals from the amended judgment.

The statute respecting artificial insemination, Oregon Laws 1977, chapter 686 (the act), is codified at ORS 109.239 to ORS 109.247, ORS 677.355 to ORS 677.370 and ORS 677.990(1) and (3).1 ORS 109.239 (section 5 of the act) [466]*466provides:

“If the donor of semen used in artificial insemination is not the mother’s husband:
“(1) Such donor shall have no right, obligation or interest with respect to a child born as a result of the artificial insemination; and
“(2) A child born as a result of the artificial insemination shall have no right, obligation or interest with respect to the donor.”

Petitioner argues that the legislature did not intend that ORS [467]*467109.239 apply to bar him, because (1) the artificial insemination occurred without the intercession of a physician, (2) he is not an anonymous donor, (3) respondent is unmarried, (4) he gave respondent his semen in reliance on an agreement that they made that he would have parental rights and (5) he wishes to undertake the responsibilities of fatherhood. He also argues that if, as applied to him, ORS 109.239 deprives him of parental rights, it violates Article I, sections 10 and 20, of the Oregon Constitution, the Due Process arid Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment and the federal constitutional right of privacy.

Respondent responds that she did not make the agreement with him but that, in any event, it is immaterial whether she did because, even if she made the agreement, he has no parental rights under the act. She also asserts that the act, as applied to petitioner, is constitutional.

We hold that ORS 109.239 applies to petitioner. Although the act does not define “donor,” it is clear that a donor is a man who gives his semen for the purpose of artificial insemination. Petitioner is a donor, even though a physician or a person under his supervision did not perform the insemination, respondent knew that petitioner was the source of the semen when she used it and she was unmarried.

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Bluebook (online)
780 P.2d 239, 98 Or. App. 462, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcintyre-v-crouch-orctapp-1989.