Court Opinion

ID: 9519133
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 01:10:04.498323+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:43:48.872367
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE BARRY, dissenting: I do not construe Stanley v. Illinois (1972), 405 U.S. 645, 31 L. Ed. 2d 551, 92 S. Ct. 1208, so broadly as to confer upon the putative biological father who assumes no legal relationship with his child, except some obligation to reimburse the State for partial costs of the child’s care, the right to veto the child’s adoption by persons to whom the mother gives her consent, or the right of visitation whereby he can intrude upon a family relationship made by the mother’s subsequently solemnized union with another. Neither do I construe it as meaning that the biological father, without giving the child equal parental claims, can have equal rights of custody with the child’s unwed mother. A child conceived outside of a legal upion that never becomes solemnized, can never in his own right obtain the status of an heir-at-law to his putative father or any lawful status or identification with lineal or collateral members of the father’s family. But all these meaningful benefits to the child automatically attend his relationships with his mother, even if she be unwed, and with his legal father, whether he be divorced, separated or widowed, and it specially should be recognized that this case does not involve the rights of a putative father to participate in adoption proceedings nor does it involve the right of a putative father to prosecute custodial rights where the natural mother is deceased. Neither Stanley nor People ex rel. Slawek v. Covenant Childrens Home, 52 Ill. 2d 20, 284 N.E.2d 291 (1972), preclude circuit courts in hearings on a putative father’s petition for visitation from weighing the basis and merits of that father’s private claims against the interests of the State and the welfare of the infant. What these cases invalidated was the formerly mandated presumption that public policy considerations always outweighed a putative father’s private interests so that no opportunity for a hearing to prove the contrary was even available. In Stanley, the biological father lived with his children’s mother and jointly shared with her the custodial privileges and responsibilities of their children. At the mother’s death, the children were taken from the father by the State Department of Children and Family Services, and the father was accorded no opportunity of a hearing to prove his fitness for continued custody, or that his continued custody would be consistent in that instance with the State’s overriding policy of providing for the best interests of his children. In the case at bar, in the absence of any legislatively mandated public policy on the question of when or under what circumstances a putative father's right of visitation should be honored, the circuit court, using the best interests and welfare of the child as the paramount concern, was left to formulate guidelines of its own. There exists, in my opinion, no reason to be disconcerted by the fact that the circuit court set forth many compelling public policy considerations prompted by specific answers to questions put to defendant, which it weighed against defendant’s private claims. I disagree with the majority that the circuit court erred by failing to base its conclusion on the peculiar evidentiary facts presented by this record. The court fbund and the record shows that defendant was married to the mother of his two infant children at the time of his relationship with relator. His paternity and claims for visitation here arise not from any jointly shared custodial relationship, as in Stanley, but from a casual adulterous encounter, as the circuit court found. Although he became divorced from his wife after the birth of relator’s child, he testified that he had no interest in whether relator would marry another, that he merely wanted visitation rights. His claim for visitation arose as a counterpetition in a proceeding brought by the State to recover partial reimbursement for the infant’s support costs. Except for the medical expense, the limit of his support contributions was fixed at *10 per week, and in this minimal obligation he became several times in arrears. An effort had been made to settle relator’s paternity claims for *1000. Relator at the time was about 12 years younger, and being 20 years of age, was living with her parents. (The amendment to the caption suggests she has since married.) Her parents objected to defendant’s intrusions upon their lives, and defendant was aware of that. Nonetheless, he would on occasion telephone relator at her parent’s home at 2 or 3 a.m., and sounding intoxicated, would make demands for visitation. Weighing this testimony as to the basis and purposes of defendant’s privately asserted interests against the guidelines as to public policy it formulated as protective of the child’s best interests, the circuit court denied the petition. The court could reasonably infer from the proof that defendant’s claims were asserted for purposes of leverage only, to compel relator and the State to drop their support claims or be prepared for his intrusion as a disruptive influence upon their lives and the life of the child. There is a presumption of validity which attends the order of the circuit court, and in my opinion, defendant has not met his burden of showing error. Clearly defendant was afforded a due process hearing. I find no error and would affirm the judgment of the circuit court.