Father is a RN and Nurse Practitioner. It is unclear where the father currently lives, but he previously lived in West Virginia.
Mother lives in West Virginia. The two never married and were in a relationship for about 12 years, although the exact nature of their relationship is unclear.
The parties share four children, all of whom are unconventional. The father did not discuss his gender, but testified that he collected and stored his eggs.
The parties’ first child, GU, was born in 2011 and is not subject to these lawsuits. The child was conceived through intrauterine insemination performed by the father on the mother.Although mom believes [Father] was the sperm donor for this procedure, the father did not provide sperm, but used an unidentified sperm donor.second child Lu[1]Conceived in 2014 through in vitro fertilization at New York Fertility Center. Twins ZU and LU[2]Born in 2016, also conceived through IVF.
On the birth certificates of all three children, the mother is listed as the legal mother and the father as the legal father.
In the father’s termination application, the father stated that he was seeking to terminate the parental rights of the “gestational surrogate.”
A hearing on the father’s application for termination is scheduled for August 18, 2021.mother’s representative is [by counsel],although [Father] Appeared Readme.
The father said he originally filed the petition in Allegheny County in 2020. The Allegheny Court of Common Pleas found that the father needed to give the mother notice or obtain her consent. Since the father had neither, the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas dismissed the case without prejudice, and the Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld it.
Father testifies about events leading to custody order in Mason County, West Virginia.Don Lou[1] After birth, there was no problem with the relationship between the two parties.When the mother was pregnant with twins ZU and LU[2], had medical problems that kept her on bed rest.period, lu[1] Got sick and had to be hospitalized for weeks. Father stays at LU[1] during the mother’s recovery.
Due to various reasons, the relationship between the two parties deteriorated during the mother’s hospitalization. Shortly before the twins were born, the father filed a Declaration of Paternity and Sealed Records motion in Kanawa County Circuit Court in West Virginia, seeking to prevent the mother’s name from appearing on the twins’ birth certificates.
After two days of hearings in October 2017, West Virginia’s Mason County Family Court signed a final distribution order on February 6, 2018, detailing each party’s custody responsibilities. The mother is designated as the primary resident and custodial parent of the children. The father was initially ordered to have custody every other weekend.
The father has filed multiple lawsuits and petitions since the guardianship order granted the mother primary custody.Mason County Family Court issues order restraining father from further prose The court found the father was constantly trying to undermine the mother’s ability to raise her children.
The father testified that he wanted to terminate the mother’s right to allow the father’s wife (CU) (“stepmother”) to adopt the child, as the father had always believed that the mother was no more than a surrogate mother who delivered the child. The father testified that the petition to end mothers’ rights was a “collateral attack” on the West Virginia order.
The father provided few details about where he lived, but said he had been a resident of Pennsylvania since 2020. Father said he signed the monthly rent. The court received copies of receipts from Airbnb showing the father rented the unit from June 2021 to August 2021. The father provided the court with a notice from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation stating that the father changed his address on June 1, 2021. The father provided court receipts showing he spent the summer in Pennsylvania receiving physical therapy for his shoulder.
The mother’s lawyers allege that the father is a vexatious litigator who is trying to file the petition before any court that will allow it.
The mother’s attorney spoke with the postmaster of the Smithton, Pennsylvania, Post Office, who said the post office would refuse any mail addressed to the father’s address. The mother doubted the legitimacy of the father’s residence because the address provided by the father was above a bar listed as a rental unit available for daily rent on Airbnb.
The Orphan Court has scheduled an additional hearing for 8 October 2021 to discuss any outstanding issues.
At the second hearing, the court heard that the father had filed a document in the case in Ohio. The father said he was not aware of the application, while the mother argued that the application was a further attempt by the father to initiate termination or guardianship proceedings in another jurisdiction.
At a second hearing, the father appealed the custody order in Putnam County, West Virginia.
The father gave no credible testimony about his residence. Father claimed he was allowed to own both residences and that he had exhausted all remedies in West Virginia. Father acknowledged that the pending West Virginia appeal considered the same issues that were complained in the termination petition.
The father testified incredulously that the West Virginia custody order was created “out of thin air” without the father’s consent. Father disagrees with mother reciting West Virginia orders and keeps saying the orders are invalid because they are unconstitutional.
The father repeatedly said at the hearing that the mother had “kidnapped” the child from him. The mother testified credibly that she had a relationship with the father and the couple spent twelve years together. During their relationship, the two would attend events and family gatherings as a couple. The West Virginia court found the mother’s testimony about the relationship credible.
The father argued that West Virginia had wrongly identified the mother as credible and that the mother was nothing more than a “court-created psycho parent.” The father maintained that the West Virginia court was relying on an unconstitutional statute that invalidated the entire guardianship order.
The mother testified that she had been concerned that her father would find a court that terminated her parental rights. She was constantly worried that the police would show up at her home and take the child away from her.
The father said he has at least six appeals pending in West Virginia, in addition to applications filed in other states. The stepmother is also appealing the adoption in West Virginia.
The father gave no further testimony about their jobs, but said Pennsylvania was their dream job location. The father did not say whether he actually worked in Pennsylvania.
In November 2021, the court heard that the father had filed an adoption application with the District of Columbia Superior Court. The court and the Superior Court of the District of Columbia communicated about the nature of the case. The District of Columbia Superior Court said the father fraudulently claimed the children had lived with him from birth and that the “surrogate mother” had no involvement in the children’s lives. Father provided an address in Washington, D.C., for a packing and shipping company. District of Columbia courts are unaware of West Virginia guardianship proceedings and Pennsylvania termination proceedings. The District of Columbia court was unaware that the mother had received primary physical custody and that the father’s custody had been suspended.
A brief hearing was held on February 11, 2022 to discuss the proceedings in District of Columbia court.
The father indicated that he began living in D.C. about a month before filing the D.C. application. The father’s DC application was filed on November 2, 2021. The father indicated that at the time of the hearing he no longer lived in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania and was temporarily residing in West Virginia…
Father spends a large part of his Brief arguing that mother does not have Fourteenth Amendment parental rights because she is not the biological parent. Father cites a wealth of case law, most of which is not commensurate with the matter at hand. The matter before us does not deal with motherhood as a parent, nor its legal implications. These issues are resolved by West Virginia courts. We won’t fix them. We only discuss the portion of the father’s argument involving the court’s decision to deny jurisdiction to orphans. …
[T]For years, courts in West Virginia have been adjudicating both parties’ custody suits…. Pennsylvania was never the home state of the children; nor was it the case that no other state had jurisdiction (WV clearly has jurisdiction); nor did West Virginia refuse to exercise its jurisdiction on the grounds that Pennsylvania was a more convenient court right……. [And] No one in this family lives in Pennsylvania…
In short, the Orphan Court did not err or abuse its discretion in finding that it did not have jurisdiction under the UCCJEA to adjudicate the father’s termination application….
