Father Appeals Disestablishment Of Paternity After DNA Test Proves He Is Not The Father

In the case of Castillo v. Rodriguez, you have a contested petition for paternity. The parents were involved in an on-again-off-again relationship. During this relationship, a child was born. The purported father of the child, Castillo, was initially established as the father’s child. However, the mother, Rodriguez, petitioned the trial court to disestablish paternity and establish another man, Coira, as the father of the child. The trial court found in favor of the mother and disestablished paternity for Castillo, assigning Coira as the father of the child.

Castillo appealed the decision. In this article, the Tampa, FL divorce lawyers at Faulkner Law Group, PLLC will take a look at the decision, discuss how it was made, and the relevant legal matters that pertain to the case.

Background of the case 

The child, known as LC, was born on January 20, 2014. Castillo filed a petition to determine the paternity of the child based on his belief that LC resulted from intimate relations shared with Rodriguez in April of 2014. Castillo was named as the father on LC’s birth certificate. Later, the couple filed a stipulation of the parties on the adjudication of paternity. The stipulation adjudicated Castillo as the natural father of the child.

About a month later, the mother filed an “amended, verified counter-petition for the determination of paternity, parental responsibility, time-sharing, and relocation. The mother hoped to relocate with her boyfriend to Colorado where he was stationed as a member of the U.S. military. The court initially denied her petition to relocate but allowed the mother to keep the child in Colorado during the summer months.

The mother then asked Coira, who she was also intimate with about the same time as Castillo, for a DNA test. The DNA test came back that it was 99.9% positive that Coira (and not Castillo) was the biological father of the child. The mother then withdrew her petition to disestablish paternity and instead filed a joint motion with Coira that sought to disestablish paternity and establish Coira as the biological father. The trial court granted her motion with respect to the disestablishment of Castillo as the biological father.

Castillo’s appeal is granted 

The appeals court ultimately decided that nothing in the Florida Statutes cited by Rodriguez allowed the court to disestablish Castillo’s paternity. Rodriguez relied on Section 742.10(4) of the Florida Statutes. This section, however, doesn’t permit relief based on the facts of the case. Instead, subsection (4) provides a “mechanism to challenge a signed voluntary acknowledgment of paternity on the basis of fraud, duress, or mistake of material fact outside the 60-day window discussed in subsection (1).

In other words, the DNA test alone was not enough for the court to disestablish paternity. Since Castillo had an ongoing relationship with the child, the court can establish his paternity even when it is proven that he is not the biological father. The relevant case law comes from Department  of  Health  and  Rehabilitative  Services  v. Privette, the Supreme Court of Florida:

[I]f a test shows that [a man] is the child’s biological father,  this  fact  without  more  does  not  constitute grounds  to  grant  a  paternity  petition.  .  .  . It  is conceivable that a man who has established a loving, caring  relationship  of  some  years’  duration  with  his legal  child  later  will  prove  not  to  be  the  biological father.    Where  this  is  so,  it  seldom  will  be  in  the children’s  best  interests  to  wrench  them  away  from their legal fathers and judicially declare that they now must regard strangers as their fathers.  The law does not require such cruelty toward children.

Talk to a Tampa, FL Paternity Lawyer Today 

The Tampa family law attorneys at Faulkner Law Group, PLLC represent the interests of men who are either attempting to establish or disestablish paternity. Call our office today to schedule an appointment, and we can begin discussing your next steps right away.

Source:

law.justia.com/cases/florida/third-district-court-of-appeal/2021/3d20-0681.html