State ex rel. Walton v. Williams

After his alleged biological son, B.V., was placed for adoption, Steven Walton filed a paternity case in juvenile court seeking to establish his father-child relationship and parental rights and responsibilities regarding B.V. Walton and B.V.’s biological mother later submitted an acknowledgment-of-paternity affidavit to the Central Paternity Registry. Walton then voluntarily dismissed his paternity action and moved the probate court for summary judgment on the adoption, relying on the enforceability of the acknowledgment of paternity. Thereafter, Adoption Connection, the adoption agency with legal custody of B.V., filed a complaint in the juvenile court asking the juvenile court to declare the paternity acknowledgment void. The case was assigned the case number for the paternity case that Walton had voluntarily dismissed. Walton filed this original action in prohibition to stop Respondents - the juvenile court judge and magistrate - from exercising jurisdiction in Adoption Connection’s case. The Supreme Court granted the writ, holding that the juvenile lacked jurisdiction because Walton’s paternity case had been voluntarily dismissed. View "State ex rel. Walton v. Williams" on Justia Law