Interest of C.L.S., a Child
Colorado Court of Appeals
313 P.3d 662 (2011)
Facts
S.V. (mother) and T.V. (husband) (plaintiff) conceived C.L.S. while married. S.V. had an affair with T.R.S. (boyfriend) (defendant) at the same time. S.V. and T.V. divorced shortly after C.L.S. was born in late 2006. C.L.S.’s birth certificate did not list a father. In 2007, S.V. and T.R.S. resumed their relationship. A paternity test excluded T.R.S. as the child’s father, but T.R.S. acted as C.L.S.’s father, signed an acknowledgement of paternity, and added his name to C.L.S.’s birth certificate. T.R.S. and S.V. broke up in 2008. T.R.S. petitioned the court for parental responsibilities over C.L.S. and was granted parenting time. T.R.S. paid S.V. child support. When S.V. applied for government benefits, the child-support enforcement unit filed this case to determine the child’s legal father. In the face of competing paternity presumptions, the magistrate held that it was in the child’s best interest for T.R.S. to be declared the father. T.V. appealed, arguing the magistrate should have used the clear-and-convincing standard to weigh the conflicting presumptions of paternity rather than the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard. The district court affirmed, and T.V. appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Bernard, J.)
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