Steven N. v. Priscilla C.

Summary

The California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division One, holds that the trial court’s order denying Priscilla C.’s application to set aside a voluntary declaration of parentage was not appealable. The court nevertheless treats the appeal as a petition for writ of mandate and concludes that Gianni V. was a presumed parent under Family Code section 7611, subdivision (b), based on an attempted marriage in apparent compliance with law. The court therefore determines that the voluntary declaration was void under Family Code section 7573.5 and directs the trial court to grant Priscilla’s application and conduct further proceedings.

Holdings

1. The trial court's order was not appealable because a voluntary declaration of parentage is not an appealable judgment, the order was preliminary to later custody proceedings, and it was not appealable under the collateral-order doctrine.
2. The Court of Appeal properly exercised its discretion to treat Priscilla's nonappealable appeal as a petition for writ of mandate.
3. Under Family Code section 7611, subdivision (b)(1), a person obtains presumed-parent status when, before the child's birth, the person and the birth parent attempted to marry through a marriage solemnized in apparent compliance with law, the child was born during the attempted marriage, and the attempted marriage could be declared invalid only by a court.
4. The VDOP signed by Priscilla and Steven was void as a matter of law because Gianni was already Stella's presumed parent under Family Code section 7611, subdivision (b)(1) when the VDOP was signed.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial court's order denying an application to set aside a voluntary declaration of parentage was appealable.
2. Whether the Court of Appeal should treat the purported appeal as a petition for writ of mandate.
3. Whether an attempted marriage solemnized in apparent compliance with law can confer presumed-parent status under Family Code section 7611, subdivision (b), even if the marriage could be declared invalid because the parties inaccurately represented that they were living together as spouses for purposes of obtaining a confidential marriage license.
4. Whether the voluntary declaration of parentage was void under Family Code section 7573.5 because Gianni was already a presumed parent when the declaration was signed.

Disposition

writ_granted