Opinion ID: 2174046
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Determining the Legal Father

Text: Next, we consider the question of who is T.K.Y.'s legal father. Unlike the parentage statute, the adoption and termination statutes are not concerned solely with identifying a child's biological father. Rather, the statutes provide a framework for determining the legal father of a child. A legal father's rights may only be terminated pursuant to statutory procedures. See Tenn.Code Ann. § 36-1-113 (2005). The legal father may or may not be the biological father of a child. The adoption and termination statutes contain these definitions: Biological parents means the woman and man who physically or genetically conceived the child who is the subject of the adoption or termination proceedings. . . .    Legal parent means: (A) The biological mother of a child; (B) A man who is or has been married to the biological mother of the child if the child was born during the marriage or within three hundred (300) days after the marriage was terminated for any reason, or if the child was born after a decree of separation was entered by a court; (C) A man who attempted to marry the biological mother of the child before the child's birth by a marriage apparently in compliance with the law, even if the marriage is declared invalid, if the child was born during the attempted marriage or within three hundred (300) days after the termination of the attempted marriage for any reason; (D) A man who has been adjudicated to be the legal father of the child by any court or administrative body of this state or any other state or territory or foreign country or who has signed, pursuant to §§ 24-7-113, 68-3-203(g), 68-3-302 or 68-3-305(b) [providing for the father's name to be entered on the child's birth certificate with the mother's consent], an unrevoked and sworn acknowledgment of paternity under the provisions of Tennessee law, or who has signed such a sworn acknowledgment pursuant to the law of any other state, territory, or foreign country; or (E) An adoptive parent of a child or adult.    Parent(s) means any biological, legal, [or] adoptive parent(s). . . . Tenn.Code Ann. § 36-1-102(10), (28), (36) (2005). Based on the statutory definitions under the termination and adoption statutes, then, the biological father is not automatically the legal father of a child. Rather, he is only the legal father if he is married to the mother at the probable time of conception or if he has been adjudicated to be the legal father. Id. § -102(28). Although the parentage statutes use the term father rather than legal father, the only logical reading of the parentage statute is that a man who has been adjudicated to be the father under the parentage law has also been adjudicated to be the legal father of the child. If that were not the case, a biological father could never be the legal father of his child unless he were married to the biological mother. Such a reading would be both incorrect and unconstitutional. See In re Swanson, 2 S.W.3d 180, 186 (Tenn.1999) (citing State v. Hudson, 562 S.W.2d 416, 418-19 (Tenn.1978)) (We recognize that there are occasions in which it is appropriate to reject a literal reading of a statute when it would result in the statute being declared unconstitutional.). The adoption and termination statutes, i.e., Tennessee Code Annotated sections 36-1-101 to -142., appear to give a preference to a man in Mr. Y.'s situation, absent an adjudicative proceeding. If there has been an adjudicative proceeding, as there was in this case, the statute again appears to create a tie between the biological father and the man who is married to the biological mother, because it does not tell us how to choose when two men satisfy the definition of legal parent. Viewing the parentage, adoption and termination statutes as a whole, and in light of the constitutionally-protected rights of biological parents, however, our view is that the rights of the biological father are superior. First, as we held in Jones , where there is a petition to establish paternity, that petition must be decided prior to any adoption or termination proceedings. Jones, 92 S.W.3d at 839; see also Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-1-117(b)(2) (2005) (The paternity petition shall be heard and concluded prior to any action by the adoption court to determine whether to grant the petition for adoption.). The statute further provides that once paternity has been established, the biological father becomes the legal father, and his rights may only be terminated as as provided by § 36-1-113 or otherwise provided by law. Id. § 36-1-117(b)(3)(B). Thus, the statute implicitly recognizes that the rights of the biological father are superior to the rights of another would-be father. Second, as we have consistently emphasized, the rights of biological parents are protected by both the state and federal constitutions. Jones, 92 S.W.3d at 840; see also In re D.A.H., 142 S.W.3d at 274 (right of biological parents to have the care and custody of their children is constitutionally-protected, fundamental right); Blair v. Badenhope, 77 S.W.3d 137, 141 (Tenn.2002); Nale v. Robertson, 871 S.W.2d 674, 680 (Tenn.1994). Once the biological father has established his paternity, his constitutionally-protected fundamental right to parent his child vests and he is the legal father. That right may only be stripped pursuant to the statutory parental termination proceduresit may not be forfeited in a balancing test or to another man who may appear to be a more ideal father.