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ENGROSSED SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL NO. 1565
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C 175 L 90
State of Washington 51st Legislature 1989 Regular Session
By House Committee on Judiciary (originally sponsored by Representatives Locke, Wang, Brough, Padden, Belcher, Wineberry, Winsley and R. Fisher)
Read first time 3/1/89.
AN ACT Relating to family relations among persons immigrating to this state from foreign nations; amending RCW 26.26.040; and adding a new section to chapter 5.44 RCW.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. A new section is added to chapter 5.44 RCW to read as follows:
In any proceeding regarding the determination of a family relationship, including but not limited to the parent and child relationship and the marriage relationship, a determination of family relationships regarding any person or persons who immigrated to the United States from a foreign county which was made or accepted by the United States immigration and naturalization service at the time of that person or persons entry into the United States creates a rebuttable presumption that the determination is valid and that the family relationship under foreign law is as made or accepted at the time of entry. Except as provided in RCW 26.26.040 (1)(f) and (2), the presumption may be overcome by a preponderance of evidence showing that a living person other than the person named by the United States immigration and naturalization service is in the relationship in question.
Sec. 2. Section 5, chapter 42, Laws of 1975-'76 2nd ex. sess. as amended by section 4, chapter 55, Laws of 1989 and RCW 26.26.040 are each amended to read as follows:
(1) A man is presumed to be the natural father of a child for all intents and purposes if:
(a) He and the child's natural mother are or have been married to each other and the child is born during the marriage, or within three hundred days after the marriage is terminated by death, annulment, declaration of invalidity, divorce, or dissolution, or after a decree of separation is entered by a court; or
(b) Before the child's birth, he and the child's natural mother have attempted to marry each other by a marriage solemnized in apparent compliance with law, although the attempted marriage is or could be declared invalid, and the child is born within three hundred days after the termination of cohabitation;
(c) After the child's birth, he and the child's natural mother have married, or attempted to marry, each other by a marriage solemnized in apparent compliance with law, although the attempted marriage is or could be declared invalid, and
(i) He has acknowledged his paternity of the child in writing filed with the registrar of vital statistics,
(ii) With his consent, he is named as the child's father on the child's birth certificate, or
(iii) He is obligated to support the child under a written voluntary promise or by court order;
(d) While
the child is under the age of majority, he receives the child into his home and
openly holds out the child as his child; ((or))
(e) He acknowledges his paternity of the child pursuant to RCW 70.58.080 or in a writing filed with the state office of vital statistics, which shall promptly inform the mother of the filing of the acknowledgment, if she does not dispute the acknowledgment within a reasonable time after being informed thereof, in a writing filed with the registrar of vital statistics. In order to enforce rights of residential time, custody, and visitation, a man presumed to be the father as a result of filing a written acknowledgement must seek appropriate judicial orders under this title; or
(f) The United States immigration and naturalization service made or accepted a determination that he was the father of the child at the time of the child's entry into the United States and he had the opportunity at the time of the child's entry into the United States to admit or deny the paternal relationship.
(2) A presumption under this section may be rebutted in an appropriate action only by clear, cogent, and convincing evidence. If two or more presumptions arise which conflict with each other, the presumption which on the facts is founded on the weightier considerations of policy and logic controls. The presumption is rebutted by a court decree establishing paternity of the child by another man.