Opinion ID: 852440
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Heading: Effect of Paternity Judgment in Dissolution Proceeding

Text: To support her contention that the dissolution court improperly failed to recognize and follow the judgment of the paternity court, the wife argues that: (a) the Adams Circuit Court lacked authority to reject the Wells Circuit Court paternity judgment in favor it its own custody order; (b) the Adams Circuit Court dissolution action lacked personal jurisdiction as to the child who is the subject of this custody dispute; and (c) the wife, as the biological mother of a child born out of wedlock, has a statutory right to sole legal custody. (a) Authority of Dissolution Court to Determine Custody Urging that the Adams Circuit Court, in adjudicating the parties' dissolution proceeding, lacked the legal authority to reject the custody determination included in the paternity judgment of the Wells Circuit Court, the wife argues that the dissolution court could not refuse to honor a judgment otherwise valid on its face issued by another Circuit court of this state. Appellant's Br. at 26. She urges that the final paternity judgment and its award of custody cannot be invalidated by the dissolution decree. The determinative issue, however, is not whether the dissolution court failed to honor a judgment of a sister court, but whether the paternity court was authorized to adjudicate a custody issue that was already pending before another court. Because the subject of child custody was first properly before the Adams Circuit Court in the dissolution proceeding, we conclude that the Wells Circuit Court was precluded from making a custody determination regarding the same child in the subsequently filed paternity action. Indiana Code § 33-28-1-6 declares: When the subject matter of a circuit court is situated in two (2) or more counties, the court that takes cognizance of the matter first shall retain the matter. The applicable principles are stated in In re Paternity of Fox, 514 N.E.2d 638 (Ind.Ct.App.1987), trans. denied: It is well settled that two courts of concurrent jurisdiction cannot deal with the same subject matter at the same time. Once jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter has been secured, it is retained to the exclusion of other courts of equal competence until the case is resolved, and the rule applies where the subject matter before the separate courts is the same, but the actions are in different forms. Exclusive jurisdiction over a particular cause of action vests when the complaint or other equivalent pleading or document is filed. 514 N.E.2d at 641 (internal citations omitted). Among the legislature's purposes for dissolution proceedings is to provide for child custody. I.C. § 31-15-1-2(3). The determination of child custody may be sought in an action for dissolution, for legal separation, for child support, or by a person other than a parent by filing a petition seeking a determination of custody of the child, I.C. § 31-17-2-3(2), or in conjunction with a paternity determination, I.C. § 31-14-10-1. The husband's petition for dissolution of marriage, filed in the Adams Circuit Court on April 21, 2005, asserted that there were four unemancipated children born of the marriage, naming each of the children, and expressly sought an appropriate provision be made with respect to the custody and support of these children. Appellant's App'x at 12. Likewise, the wife's June 7, 2005 counter-petition for dissolution of marriage identified the same four children as born to this marriage. Id. at 35. Each party filed a motion for provisional order requesting custody of the children, id. at 13, 37, and following a contested hearing, the trial court awarded temporary custody of all four children to the husband. The wife thereafter filed a separate paternity action in Wells Circuit Court as to one of the children, bringing the action as mother and next friend of the child. Prosecuting it to conclusion during the pendency of the dissolution action, the wife obtained a paternity judgment finding that another man was the biological father of the child, limiting his visitation rights, and awarding her custody of the child. The wife then notified the dissolution court of the paternity action, filing a motion to dismiss the subject child from the dissolution case, and attaching a copy of the paternity judgment. The dissolution court took the wife's motion under advisement and proceeded to a contested final hearing and thereafter entered the final dissolution decree. The subject matter of child custody of all four children was unquestionably before the dissolution court from the inception of the action. The wife could have, but did not, seek a determination in the dissolution proceeding that the husband was not the biological father of the child. Russell v. Russell, 682 N.E.2d 513, 518 (Ind.1997). The wife's subsequent prosecution of a separate paternity action in the Wells Circuit Court could not, and did not, operate to interrupt or supercede the authority of the dissolution court to determine the custody of all four children, including the child who became the subject of the paternity action. The Adams Circuit Court was entitled to complete its handling of the previously filed dissolution action, including its determination of custody of all four children, and did not err in failing to give effect to the intervening Wells Circuit Court paternity judgment. (b) Personal Jurisdiction of Children of the Marriage The wife contends that the dissolution court lacked personal jurisdiction over the child of which the husband was not the biological parent. We held in Russell that a dissolution court does not have jurisdiction to enter a custody order regarding children born during a marriage but whose biological father was not the husband. 682 N.E.2d at 517. But Russell also emphasized that, in contrast to cases where the issue of whether a child is a child of the marriage may be vigorously contested, there are many cases in which the parties to the dissolution will stipulate or otherwise explicitly or implicitly agree that the child is a child of the marriage. Id. at 518. In such cases, the determination that a child is a child of the marriage is the legal equivalent of a paternity determination in the sense that the parties to the dissolution  the divorcing husband and wife  will be precluded from challenging that determination, except in extraordinary circumstances, but it will not preclude the child from separately seeking a paternity determination. Id. Substantial similarities to the explicit or implicit agreement mentioned in Russell are found in the present dissolution case, where both parties' dissolution petitions expressly declared that all four children were born of the marriage and both sought custody and child support of these children in the dissolution proceeding. But even if the wife's subsequent separate paternity action and her belated challenges to the dissolution court's authority to determine custody of one child might arguably be characterized as vigorously contesting whether the child was a child of the marriage pursuant to Russell, such argument would not preclude the dissolution court's ultimate custody determination in this case. While Russell imposed limits on a dissolution court's power to consider such a child as a child of the marriage, Russell did not involve a non-biological father's request for custody predicated on the child's best interest, as permitted in In re the Guardianship of B.H. and S.H., 770 N.E.2d 283, 287 (Ind.2002). In the present case, such a determination was actually the ultimate basis for the court's decision to award the husband custody of the child he did not father. Because of this independent basis for the custody award, as explored in Part 2 below, further evaluation of the applicability of Russell to the present case is not warranted. (c) Automatic Custody as Mother of Child Born Out of Wedlock As a third basis for claiming custody, the wife asserts that the child not fathered by the husband is to be considered an out-of-wedlock child, thereby entitling her to sole legal custody pursuant to statute. Citing Matter of Paternity of B.W.M., 826 N.E.2d 706 (Ind.Ct.App.2005) and K.S. v. R.S., 669 N.E.2d 399, 402 (Ind.1996), she contends that, where both a wife and husband know that a child being born to the wife is not the husband's child, such child is deemed to be a child born out of wedlock, and that I.C. § 31-14-13-1 requires that a biological mother is to have sole legal custody of a child born out of wedlock. Appellant's Br. at 27. As provided in the statute, this general statement is expressly subject to several exceptions: A biological mother of a child born out of wedlock has sole legal custody of the child, unless a statute or court order provide otherwise under the following: (1) IC 12-26 (involuntary commitment of a child). (2) IC 29-3 (guardianship and protective proceedings under the probate code). (3) IC 31-14 (custody of a child born outside of a marriage). (4) IC 31-34 (child in need of services). (5) IC 31-37 (delinquent child). (6) IC 35-46 (offenses against the family). (7) IC 35-50 (criminal sentences). (8) An order by a court that has jurisdiction over the child. I.C. § 31-14-13-1 (emphasis added). Exceptions (3) and (8) appear applicable to the dissolution proceedings in the present case. Either the dissolution court is considering the award of custody of a child born outside the marriage, as under Russell, or, if not, then it was a court that had jurisdiction over the child. Thus the statutory assignment of the presumptive custody to the mother of a child born out of wedlock does not compel an award of custody to the wife in this case. We therefore reject the wife's contention that the dissolution court improperly failed to recognize and follow the judgment of the paternity court. In the dissolution proceeding, the wife affirmatively applied to the Adams Circuit Court for temporary and permanent custody and child support as to all four children born during the parties' marriage, and she did not raise any issue of paternity until one week before the scheduled final dissolution hearing. The issue of child custody was clearly before the dissolution court before the commencement of the paternity action, and the Adams Circuit Court was entitled to complete its handling of the previously filed dissolution action, including the determination of custody of all four children. It did not err in failing to give effect to the intervening Wells Circuit Court paternity and custody judgment. The dissolution court's authority to determine custody of all four children, including the child born out of wedlock, is not impaired by the statutory general presumption of sole custody for the biological mother. And even if the wife were to be considered sole custodian of the child by reason of the paternity judgment or the operation of statute regarding an out-of-wedlock child, the dissolution court in this case would be authorized to consider whether to make a superceding award of child custody to the husband as a non-biological parent of this child.