Background
After Noah A. was adjudicated neglected, David O., the biological father of Noah’s older brother, sought recognition as Noah’s presumed parent under Connecticut’s Parentage Act. Noah’s genetic father had been adjudicated previously but had never met Noah.
The trial court found that David O. had lived with Noah at times, helped care for him, held him out as his son, and had a parentlike bond with him. It adjudicated David O. a presumed parent, and Noah’s mother appealed.
The Court’s Holding
The Connecticut Appellate Court reversed. The governing statute requires a person seeking presumed-parent status to have resided with the child and to have openly held the child out as the person’s own jointly with another parent from birth for at least two years.
The trial court found only that David O. himself held Noah out as his child; it did not determine whether he and Noah’s mother did so jointly. That omission applied the wrong legal standard. The appellate court declined to weigh the evidence itself and remanded for a new parentage hearing.
Key Takeaways
- Unilateral conduct by an alleged presumed parent does not satisfy the joint-holding-out requirement.
- The trial court must make a finding on whether the alleged presumed parent and another parent jointly held out the child as their own.
- The court did not reach the mother’s other challenges, including the appropriate burden of proof.
Why It Matters
The decision gives effect to the Connecticut Parentage Act’s express joint-conduct requirement for presumed parentage. A close parental bond and an individual’s treatment of a child as their own cannot substitute for the statutory finding that another parent participated in holding the child out as jointly theirs.