Opinion ID: 848768
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Father means:

Text: (a) a man married to the mother at any time from a minor's conception to the minor's birth unless the minor is determined to be a child born out of wedlock[.] The essence of this rule is that a child has a father if his child's mother is married at any time during gestation unless the court determines by judicial notice or otherwise that the child was not the issue of the marriage. In this case, CAW had a married mother and father, Deborah Ann Weber and Robert Rivard, during the gestation period. Moreover, no finding was ever made by the court that CAW was not the issue of the marriage. The termination of Rivard's parental rights was not a determination that CAW was not the issue of the marriage and, thus, that Rivard was no longer his father; rather, it was only a determination that Rivard's legal rights were terminated. Thus, the requirements of the court rule to give Heier, a putative father, standing were not met. Finally, in the Court of Appeals opinion, as well as the dissent, there is much angst about the perceived unfairness of not allowing Heier the opportunity to establish paternity. We are more comfortable with the law as currently written. There is much that benefits society and, in particular, the children of our state, by a legal regime that presumes the legitimacy of children born during a marriage. See Serafin v. Serafin, 401 Mich. 629, 636, 258 N.W.2d 461 (1977). It is likely that these values, rather than failure to consider the plight of putative fathers who wish to invade marriages to assert paternity claims, motivated the drafters of the rules and statutes under consideration.