- A child heretofore or hereafter born of parents who prior or subsequent to the birth of such child shall have entered into a civil or religious marriage, or shall have consummated a common-law marriage where such marriage is recognized as valid, in the manner authorized by the law of the place where such marriage takes place, is the legitimate child of both birth parents notwithstanding that such marriage is void or voidable or has been or shall hereafter be annulled or judicially declared void.
- Nothing herein contained shall be deemed to affect the construction of any will or other instrument executed before the time this act shall take effect or any right or interest in property or right of action vested or accrued before the time this act shall take effect, or to limit the operation of any judicial determination heretofore made containing express provision with respect to the legitimacy, maintenance or custody of any child, or to affect any adoption proceeding heretofore commenced, or limit the effect of any order or orders entered in such adoption proceeding.
Matter of Alison RR, 2020 NY Slip Op 06002, ¶ 1, 190 A.D.3d 12, 15, 133 N.Y.S.3d 666, 668 (App. Div. 3rd Dept.)
That said, the Legislature has only empowered Family Court to hear “proceedings to determine [parentage] and for the support of children born out-of-wedlock” (Family Ct Act § 115 [a] [iii] [emphasis added]) and further defined a child in Family Ct Act article 5 as one “born out of wedlock” (Family Ct Act § 512 [b]; see Family Ct Act § 522).
Petitioners were married at all relevant times, and their child was not born out of wedlock. We acknowledge that petitioners may have good reason to want confirmation of their parental status beyond the presumptions afforded by their marriage and their identification as the child’s parents on her birth certificate (see Domestic Relations Law § 24; Public Health Law § 4103; Matter of Christopher YY. v Jessica ZZ., 159 AD3d 18, 23-24, 69 N.Y.S.3d 887 [2018], lv denied 31 NY3d 909 [2018]).
