## Facts

- A married man (father) had an extramarital relationship with a woman (mother), resulting in the birth of a child, Nathan.
- The mother cared for Nathan for about the first month after birth.
- When Nathan was about one month old, the father obtained physical custody and presented the mother with a written “Agreement Regarding Custody and Adoption.”
- The agreement purported to give the father sole custody, eliminate the mother’s visitation, and reflect the mother’s consent to a future stepparent adoption by the father’s wife (Amy).
- The mother signed without counsel and later asserted she did not understand the legal effect and felt pressured.
- The father and Amy raised Nathan in their home from roughly one month of age.
- The mother later filed a petition seeking custody and visitation.

## Issues

1. Whether the trial court erred in denying the father’s request to join Amy as a party in the mother’s custody/visitation proceeding and to adjudicate Amy as a legal parent in that case.
2. Whether a nonbiological stepmother may file an independent action to be declared the child’s legal mother under California parentage statutes based on intent to parent, the marital household, and the parties’ private agreement.
3. Whether a privately executed “custody-and-adoption” agreement can terminate a biological mother’s parental rights or establish a stepparent’s legal parentage without compliance with statutory adoption and termination procedures.

## Decision

- The court denied the father’s writ petition challenging the order denying joinder of Amy in the custody proceeding.
- The court affirmed the order granting the mother’s motion to quash and dismissing Amy’s independent parentage action.
- The court declined to recognize Amy as a legal mother on the theories asserted and left the biological mother’s legal parent status intact.

## Legal Principles

- Joinder of a third party in a custody/visitation proceeding between two legal parents is not required where the third party lacks legally recognized parental status and the dispute can be adjudicated without that person.
- California’s statutory scheme governs the creation of parentage and the termination of parental rights; courts will not recognize an independent step-parent “maternity” claim that would supplant an existing legal parent absent statutory authorization.
- A private agreement purporting to transfer custody, waive visitation, or consent to adoption does not, by itself, terminate parental rights or establish a new legal parent-child relationship; those results require compliance with statutory adoption and termination procedures and judicial oversight.

## Conclusion

The court held that Amy could neither be joined as a party to the mother’s custody case nor maintain a separate action to be declared the child’s legal mother, and that the parties’ private custody-and-adoption agreement could not bypass the statutory requirements for adoption or termination of parental rights.


Amy G. v. M.W., 142 Cal. App. 4th 1 (Cal. Ct. App. 2006)