Child Born Out of an Extramarital Affair

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Texas

If a child born out of an extramarital affair has the non biological father on the birth certificate; does the non biological father have to adopt the child or sign papers stating he presumes custody?

The mother knows she is pregnant by another man and the non bio father knows that the child is not his when he signed the birth certificate.




The non bio father is now deceased and the child wants a part of the estate. The child was never adopted and even knows the bio father.

Under current Texas law a man is presumed to be the father of the child if (1) he was married to the mother at the time of the birth, (2) was married to the mother at any time in the 300 days before the birth, he married the mother after birth and the father signed the birth certificate or an acknowledgement of paternity, or (3) he lived with the child for the first two years of the child’s life and held out to others that he is the child’s father. Since you said that the child was born of an extramarital affair I’ll assume the non-bio dad here was married to the mother at the time of conception and at birth, too, since he voluntarily signed the birth certificate. If that’s the case then he is the child’s legal father. That would give the child a claim to a share of the legal father’s intestate estate. Another heir that is disadvantaged by that may wish to consult a Texas probate attorney now to see if any challenge may be brought now to the presumed paternity in order to deny that child a share of the estate. It may be that it no longer possible to do that; I’ve not done complete research on the matter to know. Bear in mind, however, that the challenge may be difficult and costly at this point even if the law would allow for it.

See the following for more information: Texas paternity law