Craig L. v. Sandy S

In Craig L. v. Sandy S. (2004) 125 Cal.App.4th 36, the mother's husband was entitled to section 7540's conclusive paternity presumption over the child of a marriage, as well as to section 7611, subdivision (a)'s rebuttable presumption. Craig held that because the mother and her husband "allegedly permitted the biological father to receive the child into his home and hold him out as his child, the biological father was entitled to assert the rebuttable presumption provided by section 7611, subdivision (d)." (Craig L., at p. 43.) The appellate court directed the trial court on remand to weigh the two men's competing presumptions under section 7611, subdivisions (a) and (d) (Craig L., at p. 50), giving the greatest weight to the child's well-being" (id. at p. 53). Craig's holding was based on statutory interpretation of section 7541, not an insistence that the child's well-being must determine paternity findings. Craig L. v. Sandy S., supra, 125 Cal.App.4th 36 concluded that section 7540's conclusive presumption was subject to section 7612, subdivision (b)'s weighing process, after construing the statutory language of section 7541 (which governs blood test challenges to 7540's conclusive presumption). The appellate court noted that section 7541, subdivision (b) allows presumed fathers to move for blood tests to challenge the conclusive presumption and defines "'presumed father'" as having "'the meaning given in Sections 7611 and 7612.'" (Craig L., at p. 49.) "As the court read the statutory scheme, an unwed biological father has no right to blood tests under section 7541, subdivision (a), unless he has satisfied the requirements of sections 7611 and 7612, including the weighing process required by section 7612, subdivision (b)." (Ibid.)