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New York court rules family court lacks jurisdiction over same-sex child support

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] A New York state appeals court ruled that a family court does not have jurisdiction over a child support claim against a same-sex partner with no legal or biological ties to the child. In an opinion released Tuesday, the court ruled that a family court of limited jurisdiction has not been specifically authorized to entertain such claims. Although the court cited precedent that recognizes a person who neither fathered nor adopted a child as a parent under an implied contract to support the child and equitable estoppel, the court pointed out that the doctrine of equitable estoppel is only applied in such cases to adjudicate a male as a father of a child and not for determining a child's mother. State courts have recently struggled to apply traditional family law to cases involving children of same-sex couples. In April, a New York state appeals court ruled that a same-sex partner lacks standing to assert parental rights over the biological child of her partner unless she has adopted the child. In November, a Florida court ruled that a ban on adopting children for same-sex couples was unconstitutional, allowing a couple to adopt two children. The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld the same Florida statute in 2005 as being rationally related to protecting the interests of children, and the US Supreme Court declined to review that decision. In November, Arkansas voters approved a ballot measure prohibiting gays, lesbians, and other unmarried cohabiting couples from becoming either foster or adoptive parents.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on May 29, 2009 (boomark / email).