Opinion ID: 1151153
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: California decisions

Text: Because we are faced with a federal constitutional question, we must adhere, of course, to the decisions of the United States Supreme Court. It has provided a framework that strongly supports petitioner but has not squarely answered the exact question before us. We therefore have looked to relevant California decisions for additional guidance. They provide no clear answer, but our decisions in particular at least reflect an acknowledgement of some degree of federal constitutional protection for natural fathers. We begin with In re Baby Girl M. (1984) 37 Cal.3d 65 [207 Cal. Rptr. 309, 688 P.2d 918] ( Baby Girl M. ), in which we held a trial court erred in terminating a natural father's parental rights based on a best-interest-of-the-child standard without first determining whether granting custody to the natural father would be detrimental to the child. The relevant facts are similar to the present case. In Baby Girl M., the mother and father had a brief relationship that resulted in pregnancy. They separated, however, and the father was unaware of the pregnancy until shortly after the child's birth. Despite the father's desire to raise the child, the mother placed it for adoption, and his parental rights were terminated by the trial court without a finding that it would be detrimental to the child to award custody to the father. We reversed the judgment. The linchpin of our decision in Baby Girl M. was statutory rather than constitutional. Section 7017, subdivision (d), as it was then worded, set forth the procedure for terminating a natural father's rights before granting an adoption petition. Section 7017, however, did not specify what standard should be used in determining whether to terminate the father's rights. Based on the legislative history of section 7017 and a prior decision of this court, we concluded that section 4600 applied to a section 7017 custody hearing. (37 Cal.3d at p. 69.) Section 4600 states that before awarding custody to a nonparent a court must find that an award of custody to a parent would be detrimental to the child and the award to a nonparent is required to serve the best interests of the child. We need not belabor the Baby Girl M. court's statutory analysis. Two years after our decision, the Legislature amended section 7017, abrogating our decision by stating, Section 4600 does not apply to this proceeding. (Stats. 1986, ch. 1370, § 2, p. 4905; § 7017, subd. (d)(2).) In dictum, the Baby Girl M. court, supra, 37 Cal.3d 65, briefly discussed the high court decisions dealing with unwed fathers. ( Id., at pp. 73-75.) We did not expressly base our decision on constitutional grounds, but we suggested that a parental preference was required as a matter of federal constitutional law. [9] The majority opinion quoted with approval the conclusion of a law review article that `... the state may not deny biological parents the opportunity to establish a protected custodial relationship.' (37 Cal.3d at p. 74 (italics added), quoting Buchanan, The Constitutional Rights of Unwed Fathers Before and After Lehr v. Robertson (1984) 45 Ohio St. L.J. 313, 351.) This observation, although perhaps unnecessary, tends to support petitioner's position. Only one year later, we were again faced with an unwed father's attempt to rear his child in Michael U., supra, 39 Cal.3d 787. The father sought temporary custody of the child so that he could qualify as a presumed father under section 7004(a)(4) and thereby gain the right under section 7017, subdivision (d) to withhold his consent to the child's adoption. The trial court granted him custody. We reversed because the trial court's implied finding that the award of custody would not be detrimental to the child was not supported by substantial evidence. The court was sharply divided, however, with four separate opinions, none of which garnered the votes of more than two justices. Because there was no majority opinion, none of the four opinions has any precedential value. ( Del Mar Water, etc. Co. v. Eshleman, supra, 167 Cal. 666, 682.) Moreover, the basis for the decision was our prior holding in Baby Girl M., supra, 37 Cal.3d 65, that section 4600 applied to a section 7017 termination proceeding and thus precluded an award of custody to nonparents without both parents' consent or a finding that an award of custody to a parent would be detrimental to the child. ( Michael U., supra, 39 Cal.3d 787, 791.) As explained above (p. 840, ante ), the Legislature in 1986 abrogated our decision by amending section 7017, subdivision (d) to make clear that section 4600 does not apply in termination proceedings. Michael U. sheds little, if any, light on the constitutional issue before us. The question of unwed fathers' rights has also been addressed by the Courts of Appeal. In Adoption of Marie R., supra, 79 Cal. App.3d 624 ( Marie R. ), a divided court held that, with respect to a nonmarital child, a mother may, by her conduct, prevent a natural father from acquiring the status of presumed father. ( Id., at p. 630.) This conclusion seems to have been based on the premise that constructive receipt of the child was not sufficient to become a presumed father under section 7004. As a matter of statutory construction, we agree. (See discussion at pp. 825-827, ante. ) The Marie R. majority opinion, however, also noted in passing that the Legislature may constitutionally distinguish between types of fathers. (79 Cal. App.3d at p. 311.) To that extent, the court seemed to hold, as a constitutional matter, that a natural father could be denied the right to withhold consent to his child's adoption even if the father promptly did all he could do to fulfill his parental responsibilities. Similarly, in W.E.J. v. Superior Court (1979) 100 Cal. App.3d 303 [160 Cal. Rptr. 862] ( W.E.J . ), the same divided court held that a a natural father was not entitled to his child's custody for the purpose of becoming a presumed father and thereby gaining a right to withhold consent to the child's adoption. In rejecting the father's claim to custody, the majority broadly stated that the statutory distinction between natural and presumed fathers is constitutionally valid. ( Id., at pp. 313-315.) This holding was not restricted to those natural fathers who have failed to demonstrate a sufficient commitment to their responsibilities. The question of unwed fathers' rights more recently arose in Jermstad v. McNelis, supra, 210 Cal. App.3d 528 ( Jermstad ). The natural father was an officer in the merchant marine. He learned while at sea that the woman he had been dating was pregnant with their child. When he returned, they discussed what to do. She wanted to place the child for adoption. He did not want to do so but felt that he would be unable to obtain legal custody in light of the nature of his work, which periodically kept him at sea. After further discussions with the mother and with the prospective adoptive parents whom she had selected, the father decided not to seek custody. The father, however, visited the baby the day it was born and for the first time announced that he intended to seek custody. The trial court subsequently entered judgment determining him to be the father and awarding custody to him. The Court of Appeal affirmed, rejecting the mother's argument that a mother has an absolute right to prevent her child's biological father from acquiring the status of a presumed father. The court explained that under section 7010, subdivision (c) the judgment in an action to determine parentage may provide for an award of custody. [10] Thus, the Jermstad court concluded that, in an action under section 7006 to establish the father and child relationship, the trial court may award custody to the natural father so that he can receive the child into his home and become a presumed father. (8) We agree that the courts have the authority under this state's Uniform Parentage Act to grant custody to the natural father despite the mother's objection. In the present case, the superior court had the authority to grant petitioner custody of his child so that he could qualify as a presumed father under section 7004, subdivision (a). Indeed, the superior court initially did so but shortly thereafter reversed itself after enforcement of its order was thwarted. For the question now before us, the more significant portion of Jermstad, supra, 210 Cal. App.3d 528, is the court's analysis of the natural father's constitutional claim. The court rejected the mother's argument that the father was improperly given a parental preference over the couple who sought to adopt the child. The issue of parental preference also arises in this case. Petitioner contends that, if we find him not to be a presumed father under section 7004(a)(4), we should protect his claimed constitutional rights by granting him a parental preference under section 4600, subdivision (c), which states: Before the court makes any order awarding custody to a person or persons other than a parent, without the consent of the parents, it shall make a finding that an award of custody to a parent would be detrimental to the child and the award to a nonparent is required to serve the best interests of the child. Jermstad, supra, 210 Cal. App.3d 528, concluded, [t]he natural father must be afforded a parental preference under the amended statute [section 7017] where he promptly acknowledges paternity and seeks custody of the child. ( Id., at p. 545.) In reaching this conclusion, the Court of Appeal reviewed the relevant United States Supreme Court decisions and those of this court and then considered the 1986 amendment to section 7017, which was enacted after those decisions. The mother claimed the effect of the amendment, which made section 4600 inapplicable to proceedings under section 7017, was to prohibit a parental preference in those proceedings. The Jermstad court disagreed on two grounds. (9) The court first explained that, to the extent the majority opinion in Baby Girl M., supra, 37 Cal.3d 65, rested on federal constitutional considerations, it was not subject to being overruled by legislative enactment. ( Jermstad, supra, 210 Cal. App.3d at p. 549.) We agree. Second and more important for our analysis, the Jermstad court, supra, 210 Cal. App.3d 528, stated that the correct reading of the decisions by the United States Supreme Court is that a state may not deny a biological parent the opportunity to establish a protected custodial relationship with his or her child. The Jermstad court concluded that in light of this constitutional protection the amendment to section 7017 did not (and properly could not) deprive a natural father of the parental preference under section 4600. The court reasoned as follows: If we read the amendment as barring a parental preference in cases where the natural father has promptly come forward to grasp his opportunity interest and diligently pursued that interest we effectively deny these `biological parents the opportunity to establish a protected custodial relationship.' The opportunity for protection of a custodial relationship is illusory if it is subject to being nipped in the bud by application of the unprotected best interest of the child comparison with prospective adoptive parents. [¶] However, we do not discern in the 1986 amendment [to section 7017] an intention to infringe the opportunity interest of the natural father in this manner. Indeed, it appears to have been crafted with the contrary end in view. That is so notwithstanding the new proviso declaring that section 4600 does not apply, for this is not the only alteration wrought by the 1986 amendments to section 7017. The amended text specifies the criteria material to the determination whether `it is in the best interest of the child that the father retain his parental rights, or that an adoption of the child be allowed to proceed.' Of significance, it directs that `[t]he court, in making that determination, may consider all relevant evidence, including efforts made by the father to obtain custody....' This consideration conditions the best interest test and meshes with the federal constitutional concerns. [¶] ... In a case where the natural father has diligently sought to shoulder the burdens of the parental relationship, including the burden of custody, the requirement of parental preference arises from the federal Constitution. ( Jermstad, supra, 210 Cal. App.3d at pp. 550-551, italics in original.) We agree with the Jermstad court that a biological father has a constitutionally cognizable opportunity interest in developing a relationship with his child. However, in light of the Legislature's prompt and unequivocal amendment to section 4600 to supersede our decision in Baby Girl M., supra, 37 Cal.3d 65, we cannot conclude that the Legislature intended to preserve the detriment standard. To the contrary, it is clear that the Legislature meant to provide natural fathers with far less rights than both mothers and presumed fathers have under California's statutory system. The question is whether that distinction is constitutionally tenable.