In re: R.W. v. T.J.
Annotate this CaseT.J. sought a writ of mandamus to order the Montgomery Juvenile Court to adjudicate T.J. as the presumed father of S.W. (the child) and to vacate the juvenile court's order authorizing genetic testing to establish the child's paternity. In 2009, T.J. filed a petition in the juvenile court seeking custody of the child. T.J. contended that in his custody petition he alleged that he was the biological father of the child and that the child had lived with him since the child was born. The mother filed a petition seeking custody of the child. According to the briefs filed with the Supreme Court, the mother named "J.H." as the father of the child. The mother filed a motion requesting genetic testing of T.J. and J.H. to establish paternity of the child. T.J. objected. That same day, T.J. filed a motion to reconsider and an affidavit of paternity with the juvenile court. The juvenile court found that, because T.J. was incarcerated at the time the child was conceived and the mother was five months' pregnant when T.J. was released from prison, it was "unlikely" that T.J. in good faith believed he was the biological father of the child. Based on this finding, the juvenile court concluded that T.J. could not be the child's presumed father and authorized the genetic testing. On December 29, 2010, T.J. filed a petition for a writ of mandamus with the Court of Civil Appeals, asking that court to direct the juvenile court to adjudicate him, the presumed father of the child and to vacate the order authorizing genetic testing to determine the paternity of the child. The Court of Civil Appeals denied the petition on the ground that, because there was no record of the proceedings before the juvenile court, there was no way to know whether T.J. had presented sufficient evidence from which to determine that he had held the child out to the public as his natural child. Based on the briefs submitted to the Court, the evidence in that regard was disputed. Therefore, the Court could not conclude that there was sufficient evidence to hold that T.J. was the presumed father of the child. The Court remanded the case back to the juvenile court for further factfinding.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.