Man Lacks Blood Ties, Still Ruled Full Father : Jurisprudence: Court rules in his favor in dispute with ex-girlfriend. It is the first time that a non-biological parent has won status as a natural parent in California.

A judge gave an investment banker full parental rights to his former girlfriend’s child Tuesday even though blood tests showed he is not the boy’s biological father.

This is the first time in California, and possibly in the United States, a judge has ruled a non-biological parent is a natural parent, said the man’s lawyer, Glen Schwartz.

“I’m elated. I couldn’t be happier,” banker Larry McLinden said outside the courtroom. “This is the best thing that could happen to my son and myself.”

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dana Senit Henry ruled after a bitter three-week trial that McLinden, 42, was the legal father of Larry McLinden Jr., 4, because the mother had led both to believe they were related.

“Larry Jr. has never known any other father,” Henry said. “To not recognize Larry as an equitable parent would be to denigrate the basic philosophy of family law.”

The court was told McLinden and his then-secretary, Karen Hamilton, met in August, 1982, and began an affair before moving in together in November, 1986. Four months later, she revealed she was pregnant and told McLinden the child was his.

Larry Jr. was born July 1, 1987, and the three lived together as a family.

Hamilton went to Florida with her son in February, 1989, and her estranged lover filed a paternity suit.

Hamilton, 34, left the courtroom in tears and said she would appeal the ruling.

“He knew all along it wasn’t his child,” she said. “I’m married now and I want to go on with my life. That’s the only thing he (the boy) can hang on to right now and I want it to stop.”