Dennis H. v. Joshua P.

Opinion

SILLS, P. J. An unwed biological father who promptly assumes parental responsibilities of his natural child will be declared the minor’s presumed father unless the court finds him unfit. In this case, the biological father was just 15 years old. While physically mature, his emotional immaturity caused him to avoid making even minimal effort to assume parental responsibilities until after the child was bom and his parents were served with the adoption papers. The biological father relies on his minority to excuse his failure to promptly assume parental responsibilities. The court was unimpressed with his argument. We are less so, and affirm.

I

Ariel H. was bom in May 1997. Her father, Joshua P., was 15 years old. Her mother, Lisa H., was but 17 years old. After Ariel was born, Lisa turned her over to Dennis and Diane H. (no relationship to Lisa). The adoptive parents filed a petition to determine if Joshua had parental rights, and whether his consent was necessary for Ariel’s adoption. Joshua then filed a complaint to establish parental rights and obtain custody. Following a contested hearing, the court determined that Joshua was not the presumed father and his consent to the adoption was unnecessary. The court terminated his parental rights, and Joshua appeals.

n

Joshua makes three constitutional arguments. He argues that due process requires a showing of unfitness before a minor can be taken away [73]from her natural parents, the gender-based distinction between unmarried mothers and unmarried fathers violates equal protection because the artificial distinction does not bear a substantial relation to the state’s interest in providing adoptive homes to minors of unmarried parents and, with respect to a natural father who is a minor, Family Code section 7611 violates equal protection because it unfairly requires a father to physically receive the newborn child into his home.

As Joshua concedes in his reply brief, our Supreme Court has considered and rejected these same issues. (Adoption of Kelsey S. (1992) 1 Cal.4th 816 [4 Cal.Rptr.2d 615, 823 P.2d 1216].) In Kelsey S., the Supreme Court interpreted Civil Code former section 7004, which has since been renumbered Family Code section 7611. In the summary of its holding, the high court stated that Civil Code former section 7004 “violates the federal constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process for unwed fathers to the extent that the statutes allow a mother unilaterally to preclude her child’s biological father from becoming a presumed father and thereby allowing the state to terminate his parental rights on nothing more than a showing of the child’s best interest. If an unwed father promptly comes forward and demonstrates a full commitment to his parental responsibilities — emotional, financial, and otherwise — his federal constitutional right to due process prohibits the termination of his parental relationship absent a showing of his unfitness as a parent. Absent such a showing, the child’s well-being is presumptively best served by continuation of the father’s parental relationship. Similarly, when the father has come forward to grasp his parental responsibilities, his parental rights are entitled to equal protection as those of the mother.