This is a post about a pretty old case — 2005 to be exact, but it is SO exciting to me . . . and hopefully to all of you fathers out there fighting the good fight to protect your children’s rights to a relationship with you.

The case is Karen p. v. Christopher J.B., 163 Md. App. 250, 878 A.2d 646; 2005 Md. App. LEXIS 92.

It involves a case where a man who was never married to a woman, but had two children, both of whom he believed to be his own children, sued for custody of the children and was given custody!

Of both kids!

First of all, readers should understand how the appellate system in Maryland works. We have an intermediate appellate court known as the Court of Special Appeals. Everybody who loses at the trial level has an automatic right to appeal to the Court of Special Appeals. However, winning at the intermediate appellate level is very hard. The job of the intermediate appellate court is to ensure that cases that lack merit are not granted, not to make law. The job of making law in Maryland’s appellate system is for the high court, the Court of Appeals. Sometimes, the Court of Appeals will take away a case from the Court of Special Appeals if the case has a unique issue of law that hasn’t been decided yet, or a Constitutional issue of particular importance. Otherwise, a person who appeals to the intermediate appellate court and loses has to ask special permission for the high court to review their case. This is a pretty simplistic explanation, but it’s important to my discussion of this case.

Ultimately, the high court (the Court of Appeals) reversed this case for reasons other than what matters to you dads out there. In the case of Janice M. v. Margaret K., 404 Md. 662, 948 A.2d 83 (2008), the Court of Appeals found that the Court of Special Appeals didn’t get it right in Karen P. v. Christopher J.B. about what is known as de facto parents. But that doesn’t change the important part of Karen P.

The important thing about Karen P. v. Christopher J.B. is this: in this case, the intermediate appellate court found that even though both parents were “fit,” the fact that the mother had demonstrated, through what the trial court called, “a pattern of selfishness and immaturity,” an indifference for the best interests of the child (who, as it turned out, was not the biological child of Christopher J.B.) was a sufficiently extraordinary circumstance to give Christopher custody of the child who was not even his own biological child. The Court of Special Appeals also specifically found that the mother’s actions in “alienating” the children from their father was a valid reason for the trial court (Here, here! For the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Bench) to give custody of the children to their father.

Don’t lose hope, Dads of Maryland (especially if you are from Anne Arundel County!). The courts, both trial and appellate, are waking up and listening to your children!