California Family Code Section 7611(D) - Case Laws Example

In In re A.A. (2003) 114 Cal.App.4th 771, two men claimed to be the presumed father, the juvenile court ruled in favor of the biological father, H.O., after a paternity test established his biological connection. The evidence otherwise established that H.O. had lived with the mother for only one to three months after the child's birth, had visited the child, a six-year-old girl, for a year or so thereafter, and had failed to financially support the child at any time. Taking note of H.O.'s avoidance of "the constant parental-type tasks that come with having the child in his own home--such as feeding and cleaning up after the minor, changing her clothing, bathing her, seeing to her naps, putting her to bed, taking her for outings, playing games with her, disciplining her, and otherwise focusing on the child," the Court of Appeal concluded that the evidence was insufficient to establish that H.O. received the child into his home and openly held her out as his natural child. (Id. at pp. 786-787.) The court found, on the other hand, that the evidence clearly established the competing claimant's entitlement to the Family Code section 7611(d) presumption, as he had taken the child into his home, cared for her, provided financial support and held himself out as her father over the course of many years. As the holding in A.A. with respect to the biological father was based on the lack of evidence to give rise to the Family Code section 7611(d) presumption, it does not support the juvenile court's ruling in the present case that appellant's presumed father status arose under section 7611(d), but "fell away" due to abandonment and failure to support.