County of Fresno v. Regalado CA5

INTRODUCTION

Appellant Rico R. Lopez-Flores claims that DNA testing shows he is the biological father of a minor child. This appeal concerns his challenge to an October 2002 judgment, which declares that another man is the child’s father. The judgment was entered in a child support action brought by the County of Fresno Department of Child Support Services (Department) against the other man. Lopez-Flores filed a postjudgment motion for joinder in the child support action, which the superior court denied. Lopez-Flores filed this appeal, contending the trial court erroneously denied the motion for joinder. We conclude that the order denying the joinder is equivalent to an order denying a request to intervene and, therefore, is a final and appealable determination of Lopez- Flores’s right to proceed in this litigation. We further conclude that Lopez-Flores failed to establish that his motion for joinder, which is unusual because it was made postjudgment, was mandatory under the circumstances of this case. We therefore affirm the order denying the motion for joinder.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

During the fall of 1999, Teena Chavez was intimate with Juan Antonio Regalado and appellant…