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IN THE MISSOURI COURT OF APPEALS WESTERN DISTRICT
LESLEA DIANE WHITE, individually and as next friend for C.E.W. and Z.A.W., Appellants, v. ELIZABETH MICHELLE WHITE, n/k/a ELIZABETH MICHELLE CROWE, Respondent. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

WD69580 Filed: June 23, 2009

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF BOONE COUNTY, MISSOURI The Honorable Cary G. Augustine, Judge Before: Victor C. Howard, Presiding Judge, Joseph M. Ellis, Judge and Alok Ahuja, Judge

Leslea Diane White ("Leslea") appeals from a judgment entered in the Circuit Court of Boone County dismissing without prejudice her "Petition for Declaration of Maternity, For Order of Custody and For Order of Child Support" related to minors C.E.W. and Z.A.W. For the following reasons, the judgment is affirmed. I. Factual Background Leslea and Elizabeth Michelle White ("Michelle") were involved in a committed same-sex relationship for approximately eight years beginning in 1997. During the

relationship, Michelle changed her last name to White, and she and Leslea each conceived a child through artificial insemination using the same anonymous sperm donor.1 Michelle is the biological mother of C.E.W., who was born December 15, 2001, and Leslea is the biological mother of Z.A.W., who was born July 27, 2004. Leslea and Michelle lived together with the children until their relationship terminated in November 2005. For the next several months, the children lived part of the time with Leslea and part of the time with Michelle. In late May 2006, Michelle refused to allow Leslea or Z.A.W. to have any contact with C.E.W., refused to accept Leslea's offers of financial support for C.E.W., and stopped seeking contact with Z.A.W. or contributing to his financial support. It appears that neither the children nor the women have had any contact with each other since that date. On January 18, 2007, Leslea filed a "Petition for Declaration of Maternity, For Order of Custody and For Order of Child Support" in the Circuit Court of Boone County as an individual and as next friend for C.E.W. and Z.A.W. She asserted that neither child has a natural or presumed father and prayed for the court to declare both women to be the legal parents of both children based on their alleged joint decisions to conceive the children and their relationships with the children. She asked the court to enter an award of joint legal and physical custody2 as to both children and to order both women to pay reasonable child support.
1

The sperm donor waived all parental rights to both children; his identity is unknown, and he has never been involved in the childrens lives or in these proceedings. 2 In the alternative, Leslea prayed for the court to award primary physical custody of both children to her and to award Michelle reasonable visitation. However, Leslea represented to this Court that she is not seeking to remove C.E.W. from Michelle's physical custody but only to "share" custody.

2

Michelle subsequently filed a motion to dismiss the petition for lack of standing and failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. Michelle argued that Leslea is not biologically related to C.E.W., that no statute provides for declaration of "maternity" of a non-biologically related female, and that Leslea has no standing to assert a claim of parentage under the Uniform Parentage Act,

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