(Download) "In re S.M" by In the District Court of Appeal of Florida Second District # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: In re S.M
- Author : In the District Court of Appeal of Florida Second District
- Release Date : January 09, 2004
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 52 KB
Description
After sheltering S.M. in the days following her premature birth, the Department of Children and Family Services filed a petition to declare her a dependent child. During the dependency proceedings, S.M.'s mother testified that she did not know she was pregnant until she gave birth to the child, that she moved from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Florida soon after S.M. was conceived, that the child's father was E.K., with whom she maintained a sexual relationship in Pennsylvania for approximately twenty-two years, and that E.K. had never traveled outside of Pennsylvania. Upon being served with the petition and other papers, E.K., without submitting himself to the jurisdiction of the court and without admitting or denying paternity, filed several motions, including a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. The circuit court denied his motion on the ground that personal jurisdiction was irrelevant in a dependency action and ordered E.K. to submit to paternity testing. We reverse, and in doing so distinguish between the inherent authority of the circuit court to adjudicate a child dependent and its lack of power to determine paternity of a parent who possesses no jurisdictional ties to this state. When he was first notified of the dependency action, E.K. hired an attorney who moved to dismiss on the basis of insufficient service of process and lack of jurisdiction. The trial court moved forward and adjudicated dependency as to the mother; however, the court continued the dependency arraignment as to E.K. pending proof of personal service on him.