Legal Question in Family Law in California

Justice Oliver Holmes once said that the life of the law has not been logic, but experience. Your case is unique, in that in a majority of situations in our history, a child knows who his mother is, but the father was always a suspect. Law evolved to deal with this situation, and the situation that you describe is not normal.

California recognizes a doctrine known as parentage by estoppel. That situation arises when a parent holds out someone else's child as their own to the public, and receives the child into his home. I use the pronoun "he" because historically that has been applied to a man. In other words, there is a long history of case law in which a man, who is not the biological father, is later deemed in a court of law to be the legal father. The justification for this is that a child is presumed to have one father, and that father stepped up to the plate, and the child should not be allowed to be harmed by him denying his parentage at a later date.

As I read your question, however, I am unable to tell you whether this would apply to a situation involving a woman claiming to be the mother. You should be worried if she has filed papers against you and you have not obtained an attorney. You need to dispute her attorney's, or her accusations of parentage. I also do not understand from the facts that you have provided why a guardianship petition has been filed, as this issue usually arises in a paternity action to determine child support.