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Courts
in Colorado Springs divorce or dissolution of marriage cases recognize the concept of a
psychological parent and its relationship to the best interest of the
child. The psychological father or psychological mother
in a divorce is someone other than a biological parent who develops a
parent-child relationship with a child through day-to-day interaction,
companionship, and caring for the child. Who may be
deemed a psychological parent has been defined in various ways –common
to these definitions is a relationship with deep emotional bonds such
that the child sees the person as Mom or Dad.
There is case law
in Colorado that prevents the psychological parent from obtaining
parenting rights and responsibilities if the natural parent of the same
gender objects.
Once the person is deemed a psychological parent whether that person will be required to pay child support is another issue. Normally, we argue under principles of equitable estoppel or promissory estoppel that child support should be paid.
Equitable
estoppel requires representation, reliance, and detriment. It arises
when one party is led to change its position in reliance on the course
of conduct followed by another, and in that case, the doctrine of
estoppel will be applied to bar the second party from altering that
conduct if, to do so, would prejudice the first party. That
case goes on to establish a test for determining the existence of a
psychological parent relationship.
The test for determining whether a
party has been a psychological parent to a child is that the legal parent
must consent to and foster the relationship between the third party and
the child; the third party must have lived with the child; the third
party must perform parental functions for the child to a significant
degree; and most important, a parent-child bond must be forged.
Some Courts have determined that equitable estoppel can only by used as a shield, and not a sword. In those cases, we argue that a different concept promissory estoppel applies. There must be five prerequisites for promissory estoppel: (1)
A promise which (2) the promisor should reasonably expect to cause the
promisee to change his position and (3) which does cause the promisee
to change his position (4) justifiably relying upon the promise, in
such a manner that (5) injustice can be avoided only by enforcement of
the promise.
We
have argued that a person who prior to the dissolution of marriage,
takes a child into his home and holds her out as his own, and receives
and enjoys the benefits of parenthood, inducing the natural parent to
rely on them as a means of support, should be responsible for the
support of that child.
BOTTOM LINE: There is no case law yet to determine that the psychological parent must pay child support. So
far, although we have been successful in gaining parenting time for the
psychological parent, the Courts have been reluctant to award child
support from the psychological parent.
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