Case Name: Adoption of MARIE R., a Minor. RONALD K. et al., Petitioners and Appellants, v. CHARLES K., Claimant and Respondent; SCOTT R., et al., Claimants and Appellants
Court: Court of Appeal of the State of California
Jurisdiction: California
Decision Date: 1978-04-10
Citations: 79 Cal. App. 3d 624
Docket Number: Civ. No. 50638
Parties: Adoption of MARIE R., a Minor. RONALD K. et al., Petitioners and Appellants, v. CHARLES K., Claimant and Respondent; SCOTT R., et al., Claimants and Appellants.
Judges: 
Reporter: California Appellate Reports, Third Series
Volume: 79
Pages: 624–638

Head Matter:
[Civ. No. 50638.
Second Dist., Div. Four.
Apr. 10, 1978.]
Adoption of MARIE R., a Minor. RONALD K. et al., Petitioners and Appellants, v. CHARLES K., Claimant and Respondent; SCOTT R., et al., Claimants and Appellants.
Counsel
Elaine B. Fischel for Petitioners and Appellants.
David Keene Leavitt for Claimants and Appellants.
Oliver W. Holmes, Jr., Bernie Fineman, Michael A. Aronoff and Richard J. Tuckerman for Claimant and Respondent.

Opinion:
Opinion
KINGSLEY, J.
The case comes before the court on a settled statement on appeal in lieu of both the reporter's and clerk's transcripts.
Ronald K., a young attorney, and his wife Jill are petitioners for adoption of Marie R., a baby bom January 11, 1976. The baby's mother is Sheila R. and both Sheila's husband, Scott R., and respondent, Charles K., claim paternity.
Sheila and Scott were married January 8, 1976, three days before the birth of the baby, and the birth certificate lists Scott as the father. Immediately after birth, Sheila and Scott placed the baby with petitioners for adoption and the baby has lived with petitioners ever since she was two days old. Sheila and Scott do not now live together.
Over a year prior to the petition for adoption, Charles had filed a complaint to establish paternity. That action is still pending. Subsequent to the filing of the petition for adoption, petitioners filed and served on Charles a notice pursuant to Civil Code section 7017.
Sheila testified that she was not married to Charles and did not cohabit with him at the time of conception, and that Charles had not received the child into his family or into his home. The trial court decided to permit Charles to introduce evidence as to paternity purportedly pursuant to Civil Code section 197 as amended. Charles testified that he had intercourse with Sheila, that they were engaged, and that he wanted to keep the baby. Sheila testified that she had had intercourse with both Scott and Charles during the period of conception, that she let Charles assume he was the father of the baby, and that Charles was unemployed. Scott also testified to intercourse with Sheila during the period of conception. Both Sheila and Scott testified that they wanted the baby adopted by a stable, happily married couple.
Blood tests were inconclusive.
Charles had never actually seen the baby. He did not contribute to the baby's or Sheila's prenatal support or the expenses of birth, although he offered to do so. He also paid no support after birth.
The trial court found that Charles "constructively received the baby as his own, although actual receipt of the baby was prevented by the natural mother."
Claimants Sheila and Scott appeal from the court order which found that the petition for adoption could not proceed without Charles' consent, and which found that Charles is the presumed father who is legally entitled to custody of the child.
I
While the baby was conceived in 1975, prior to the effective date of the Uniform Parentage Act, that law was in effect at the time of the child's birth and at the time of the institution of the proceedings herein involved. We regard the case at bench as governed by the law as expressed by the present law, which is also the law applicable at the date of birth.
Under the present law, Civil Code section 224, as amended by California Statutes, 1975, chapter 1244, permits an adoption with the sole consent of the mother except where a child has a "presumed" father as defined in section 7004 of the Civil Code. In the latter case the consent of the father is also required. Section 7017 of the Civil Code, adopted as part of the same revision of our law, is to the same effect.
Since Charles, admittedly, has never been married to Sheila, the presumption contained in paragraphs (1), (2) and (3) of subdivision (a) of section 7004 are not herein involved. Charles' claim, and the trial court's decision, rest on the theory that he became a "presumed" father under paragraph (4) of subdivision (a) of that section—i.e., that he had received the child into his home and openly recognized it as his child. On the other hand, Scott may rely on paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of that same section, since he and Sheila were married at the time of the child's birth.
The briefs discuss at some length cases decided under former section 230 of the Civil Code, which was repealed by the 1975 legislation. While those cases have some limited value in interpreting that part of the language in new section 7004 that is the same as some of the language in former section 230, they are not controlling in the case at bench, since section 230, by its terms, presupposed the fact of paternity.
Prior to the adoption of the Uniform Parentage Act, legislation and case law in this field were concerned with establishing the status of legitimacy, from which status various rights flowed. However, the new legislation abolished the entire concept of legitimacy and substituted, as the basis for determining those rights, the concept of parentage.
However, while the Uniform Parentage Act abolishes the concept of legitimacy, the Legislature has retained, in the situation before us, two carry-overs from that concept. The effect of the new law is to draw a distinction between a natural father proven to be such by the evidence and "presumed" fathers whose paternity can be determined by use of presumptions. One such distinction is involved in the case at bench. While both kinds of "fathers" are obligated to support the child and both kinds of fathers may, if they move promptly, have some rights to custody. Only a "presumed" father may, under section 224, object to an adoption sought by the natural mother. That a Legislature may validly draw that distinction is apparent from the recent decision of the United States Supreme Court in Quilloin v. Walcott (1978) 434 U.S. 246 [54 L.Ed.2d 511, 98 S.Ct. 549]. Thus the only issue properly before us on this appeal is whether Charles has the status of a "presumed" father under paragraph (4) of subdivision (a) of section 7004. We conclude that he does not.
In support of his claim to being a "presumed" father, Charles relies on a series of cases decided under old section 230. It is true that, in the cases so relied on, the courts strained to find a legitimation under that section, because the status of legitimacy had such importance at that time. However, that motivation is no longer present under the present law as applied to the facts of this case. Whether Charles is, or is not, determined to be the child's father, the baby will end up with a father—either Charles or Ronald K.
Even the cases under old section 230, seeking to establish legitimacy, fail to support Charles' claim that he can rely on paragraph (4). In Lavell v. Adoption Institute (1960) 185 Cal.App.2d 557 [8 Cal.Rptr. 367], an admitted natural father had lived with the mother during conception, and had openly acknowledged that the expected child was his. In Hurst v. Hurst (1964) 227 Cal.App.2d 859 [39 Cal.Rptr. 162, 19 A.L.R.3d 635], the natural father, who had at all times admitted his paternity, rented an apartment in his name, established the mother and child therein, and paid the expenses of the household. In In re Richard M. (1975) 14 Cal.3d 783 [122 Cal.Rptr. 531, 537 P.2d 363], the natural father and the mother had lived together for two weeks after the birth of the child and, thereafter, the child, with the consent of the mother, had visited the natural father for weekends and, occasionally, for longer periods.
In all of those cases, and the other cases on which they rely, there was some actual contact between the natural father and the child; here there was none.
Charles here relies on the fact that he has tried to have the child with him in his mother's home but has been frustrated in those attempts by the refusal of the mother to permit him to have the child. But that is not sufficient. The cases have recognized that a mother may, by her conduct, prevent a natural father from securing even the minimal contact with the child that old section 230 required. (Adoption of Rebecca B. (1977) 68 Cal.App.3d 193, 198 [137 Cal.Rptr. 100]; In re Reyna (1976) 55 Cal.App.3d 288, 300 [126 Cal.Rptr. 138].) Absent even the minimal contact recognized in the cases above cited, there can be no receipt, constructive or otherwise, into the home of a purported father. Since nothing in the record before us shows any contact between Charles and the child, but only his efforts to establish such contact, rejected by the mother, the finding of the trial court that Charles is a "presumed" father under section 7004 is without support and must be reversed.
The order appealed from is reversed.
Files, P. J., concurred.
Section 224: "A child having a presumed father under subdivision (a) of Section 7004 cannot be adopted without the consent of its parents if living; however, if one parent has been awarded custody by judicial decree, or has custody by agreement of the parents, and the other parent for a period of one year willfully fails to communicate with and to pay for the care, support, and education of such child when able to do so, then the parent having custody alone may consent to such adoption, but only after the parent not having custody has been served with a copy of a citation in the manner provided by law for the service of a summons in a civil action that requires him or her to appear at the time and place set for the appearance in court under Section 227; failure of a parent to pay for the care, support and education of such child for such period of one year or failure of a parent to communicate with such child for such period of one year is prima facie evidence that such failure was willful and without lawful excuse; nor a child with no presumed father under subdivision (a) of Section 7004 without the consent of its mother if living; except that the consent of a father or mother is not necessary in the following cases:
"1. When such father or mother has been judicially deprived of the custody and control of such child (a) by order of the court declaring such child to be free from the custody and control of either or both of his parents pursuant to Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 232) of Title 2 of Part 3 of Division 1 of this code, or (b) by similar order of the court of another jurisdiction, pursuant to any law of that jurisdiction authorizing such order; or when such father or mother has, in a judicial proceeding in another jurisdiction, voluntarily surrendered his right to the custody and control of such child pursuant to any law of that jurisdiction provided for such surrender.
"2. Where such father or mother of any child has deserted the child without provision for its identification.
"3. Where such father or mother of any child has relinquished such child for adoption as provided in Section 224m; or where such father or mother has relinquished such child for adoption to a licensed or authorized child-placing agency in another jurisdiction pursuant to the law of that jurisdiction."
Section 7004: "(a) A man is presumed to be the natural father of a child if he meets the conditions as set forth in Section 621 of the Evidence Code or in any of the following subdivisions:
"(1) He and the child's natural mother are or have been married to each other and the child is born during the marriage, or within 300 days after the marriage is terminated by death, annulment, declaration of invalidity, or divorce, or after a decree of separation is entered by a court.
"(2) Before the child's birth, he and the child's natural mother have attempted to marry each other by a marriage solemnized in apparent compliance with law, although the attempted marriage is or could be declared invalid, and,
"(i) If the attempted marriage could be. declared invalid only by a court, the child is born during the attempted marriage, or within 300 days after its termination by death, annulment, declaration of invalidity, or divorce; or
"(ii) If the attempted marriage is invalid without a court order, the child is born within 300 days after the termination of cohabitation.
"(3) After the child's birth, he and the child's natural mother have married, or attempted to marry, each other by a marriage solemnized in apparent compliance with law, although the attempted marriage is or could be declared invalid, and
"(i) With his consent, he is named as the child's father on the child's birth certificate, or
"(ii) He is obligated to support the child under a written voluntary promise or by court order.
"(4) He receives the child into his home and openly holds out the child as his natural child.
"(b) Except as provided in Section 621 of the Evidence Code, a presumption under this section is a rebuttable presumption affecting the burden of proof and may be rebutted in an appropriate action only by clear and convincing evidence. If two or more presumptions arise under this section which conflict with each other, the presumption which on the facts is founded on the weightier considerations of policy and logic controls. The presumption is rebutted by a court degree establishing paternity of the child by another man."
Old section 230 read as follows: "The father of an illegitimate child, by publicly acknowledging it as his own, receiving it as such, with the consent of his wife, if he is married, into his family, and otherwise treating it as if it were a legitimate child, thereby adopts it as such; and such child is thereupon deemed for all purposes legitimate from the time of its birth. The foregoing provisions of this Chapter do not apply to such an adoption." (Italics added.)
Another similar distinction is drawn by section 197 as now amended. That section now reads: "The mother of an unmarried minor child is entitled to its custody, services and earnings. The father of the child, if presumed to be the father under subdivision (a) of Section 7004, is equally entitled to the custody, services and earnings of the unmarried minor. If either the father or mother be dead or unable or refuse to take the custody or has abandoned his or her family, the other is entitled to its custody, services and earnings." (Italics added.)