Fourth District Reverses Paternity Determination Made at Case Management Conference

The Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled yesterday in Rodriguez v. Santana, in so doing reversing the lower tribunal’s ruling which made a final determination on a petition to determine paternity at a hearing noticed only for a case management conference.  In ruling that the Motion for Relief from Judgment directed to that determination should have been granted, the Fourth District Court cited Illanes v. Gutierrez, 972 So.2d 222 (Fla. 3d DCA 2007), which held that “Florida courts have repeatedly held that it is a violation of a parent’s due process rights for a court to modify visitation in a final judgment unless the issue of modification is properly presented to it by written pleadings, noticed to the parties, or litigated below.”