5D00-1538 P.C. v. DCF

State: Florida

Court: Florida Fifth District Court

Docket No: 5D00-1538

Case Date: 01/28/2002

Preview:IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA FIFTH DISTRICT JANUARY TERM 2002

P.C., AS PARENT OF J.C., A CHILD, Appellant, v. CASE NO. 5D00-1538

DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES, Appellee. / Opinion filed February 1, 2002 Appeal from the Circuit Court for St. Johns County, John Alexander, Judge. Clyde M. Collins, Jr., Jacksonville, for Appellant. K.C. Tusher, St. Augustine, for Appellee. THOMPSON, C.J. P.C. appeals his dismissal from a dependency case. The court based the dismissal on Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services v. Privette, 617 So. 2d 305 (Fla. 1993). We reverse because we conclude that Privette has no application to the instant case. The Department of Children and Family Services brought this dependency case after having sheltered the child at birth. The child's two older siblings had been removed from the home. The child was born while P.C. was married to the mother, but it was stipulated that the biological father was a man who drowned a few months before the child's birth. P.C.'s

name was listed as the father on the birth certificate; thus, he is the legal father of the child. P.C. attended the child's birth during a work release liberty from the county jail, but in the months between the birth and the hearing in issue, he had no other contact with the child because of his incarceration. We conclude that the court erred in conducting the Privette hearing. The court stated that the purpose of the hearing was to determine whether it was in the child's best interests to be declared not to be the product of the marriage between the mother and P. C. Although the Department informed the court that it was present only for a dependency hearing and not for a determination of legal versus the biological status of P.C., the court proceeded.1 In Privette, the department sought to pursue the alleged biological father of a child born when the mother was married to a man who was listed as the father on the birth certificate. The court stated that the presumption of legitimacy is based on the policy of protecting the welfare of the child

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