Nevada family-law case summaries

This case is about who can be legally recognized as a parent in Nevada when a child was born through a surrogate arrangement and one of the adults raising the child has no biological connection to the child. Mary Lorenzo and Pierre Gendebien were in a relationship and lived together starting in 2016. In 2017, Gendebien signed a gestational agreement - a contract to have a child through a surrogate (a woman who carries and gives birth to a child for someone else). The child, A.G., was conceived using Gendebien's sperm and an egg from an anonymous donor. The agreement named Gendebien as the only intended parent and left the space for a mother's name blank. Before the child was born, Gendebien obtained a court order establishing himself as the sole parent, and the child's birth certificate left the mother's name blank. A.G. was born in June 2018. Lorenzo and Gendebien raised the child together in their shared home until their relationship ended in November 2021. At first they shared equal time with A.G., but Gendebien gradually reduced Lorenzo's access and eventually cut it off. Lorenzo then went to court in September 2022, asking to be recognized as A.G.'s mother and seeking joint legal and physical custody. She said she and Gendebien had held her out as A.G.'s parent, that they had lived together as a family since before the child's birth, and that Gendebien had promised to add her name to the birth certificate. Gendebien asked the court to throw out her complaint, arguing she had no right to seek parentage because she did not give birth to A.G., did not adopt A.G., was not married to Gendebien, and was not named in the gestational agreement. The district court agreed and dismissed her maternity and custody claims (though it allowed a separate request for nonparent visitation to continue, which was later denied). The Court of Appeals reversed. The court explained that when someone asks a court to dismiss a complaint at the very start of a case, the court must assume the facts the person alleges are true. The question is only whether those alleged facts, if proven, could entitle the person to relief. The court held that Nevada's parentage statutes do not limit motherhood claims only to women who have a biological link to the child. Under NRS 126.231, "any interested party may bring an action to determine the existence of a mother and child relationship," and Nevada's rules about how fatherhood can be presumed apply to motherhood cases "insofar as practicable." The court held that two of the ways a man can be presumed to be a father - living with the child's other natural parent for at least six months before conception and continuing through the period of conception, and receiving the child into his home and openly holding the child out as his own - can apply equally to a woman seeking to be recognized as a mother. Because Lorenzo alleged facts fitting these situations, her case should not have been dismissed at the outset. The court also addressed the surrogacy contract. It held that the contract locked in Gendebien's rights as the intended parent "immediately upon the birth of the child," but did not permanently block other interested people from later trying to establish that they are also a parent - unless they had agreed to be left out. The court noted that the surrogacy statutes were mainly designed to prevent a surrogate from later claiming to be the child's parent, not to forever shut out everyone else. The court sent the case back to the district court with instructions. On remand, the district court must hold an evidentiary hearing. Lorenzo must first prove, by a preponderance of the evidence (meaning more likely than not), that she qualifies as a presumptive parent. If she does, Gendebien then gets the chance to rebut - to overcome - that presumption, but only by clear and convincing evidence (a higher standard). To decide whether rebuttal is appropriate, the court announced a new three-part test looking at how the family was formed, whether the person voluntarily took on parental responsibilities, and whether anyone else is claiming to be the child's second parent. If Lorenzo's presumptive status is not rebutted, she is recognized as a parent and the court moves on to decide custody based on the child's best interest. If it is rebutted, judgment goes to Gendebien.