« Ind. Decisions - "Big-time attorneys argue adult plaza case" | Main | Ind. Courts - West Lafayette City Judge race »

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Law - Still more on: Does Avowal of Fatherhood Impose an 'Equitable Paternity'

This lengthy ILB entry from March 18th began:

Last month the ILB had an entry on this issue, noting that there had cases in New York and Illinois where a "father" who has been paying child support later learns he is not the biological father, and now Kentucky was looking at the issue.
The entry included this quote from the Louisville Courier Journal:
Courts around the country are struggling with those questions, including in two emotional cases from Jefferson County.

In one, Ren Hinshaw, 58, is fighting to retain joint custody of a child he helped raised and loves as his own, even after finding out the boy is not his biological child. "He is my son, and I am his dad," Hinshaw said in an e-mail to the newspaper.

The child's mother says Hinshaw should have no right to custody.

Today Andrew Wolfson of the LCJ reports on the outcome of that case, in a story titled "Man who was deceived about paternity retains custody: State high court upholds ruling." Some quotes:
The Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled that people who deceive their spouses into thinking that a child is theirs cannot later contest their right to custody -- even if DNA tests show they are not the parent.

The court unanimously upheld a lower court ruling granting primary custody to Ren Ricky Hinshaw, whose wife led him to believe he was the father of their child until they divorced and she produced genetic testing showing the child wasn't his.

In an opinion issued Thursday, the court said that the "acts, language and silence" of Hinshaw's ex-wife, Jacqueline Lenarz, "were aimed at misleading Ren into believing he was Asher's biological father." The court also said that while they were married, she intended for him and the child to develop a strong father-son relationship. * * *

The Supreme Court, in an opinion written by Justice Bill Cunningham, described how Hinshaw was in the delivery room when the boy he thought was his son was born in 1999.

Hinshaw, a technology consultant at the University of Louisville's Kornhauser Health Sciences Library, cut the umbilical cord and later taught the boy to talk and volunteered at his school, according to court records.

But when Lenarz, also a librarian, divorced Hinshaw in 2003, she disclosed he wasn't the biological father and asked Jefferson Family Court to deny him custody, citing DNA tests which showed he couldn't be the father.

A court-appointed psychologist who met with the child concluded he had bonded with Hinshaw and that severing the relationship would cause the boy "severe emotional and psychological harm," the Supreme Court noted.

It also said that a family court judge, awarding principal custody to Hinshaw, said that his wife had "always represented, both to Ren and the world," that he was the child's father.

The Court of Appeals last year affirmed the decision, but Lenarz appealed.

The Supreme Court said that if Hinshaw had known that he wasn't the father when the child was born, he could have tried to adopt him.

Here is a copy of the opinion.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 3, 2007 08:46 AM
Posted to General Law Related