The judgments
This page documents the court rulings that recognised the biological filiation of Olmo Gómez Aldaz with full civil effects and confirmed a situation of dual filiation: the biological filiation judicially declared and the adoptive filiation that was not annulled.
The first-instance judgment was delivered on 13 November 2024 by the Court of First Instance No. 9 of Pamplona/Iruña. The Provincial Court of Navarra fully upheld it on 12 May 2025.
On this page
Judgment recognising dual filiation
On 13 November 2024, the Court of First Instance No. 9 of Pamplona/Iruña, by means of Judgment No. 472/2024 delivered by Judge José Antonio González González, judicially recognised and declared the biological filiation of Olmo Gómez Aldaz with full civil effects.
That decision constitutes the turning point of the case: for the first time, the filiation of origin is officially declared and ordered to produce the same legal consequences as any other filiation recognised under civil law.
This means something very concrete: a court officially declares who the claimant’s biological father is and orders that this filiation produce real effects in the civil and registry sphere. It is not a symbolic or historical statement, but a decision with full legal consequences.
Confirmation on appeal
On 12 May 2025, the Third Section of the Provincial Court of Navarra delivered Judgment No. 845/2025 , fully confirming the first-instance decision.
The Court did not introduce a new recognition, but rather upheld what had already been declared and further developed its legal reasoning.
Both rulings recognise biological filiation with civil effects without annulling the previously registered adoptive filiation.
Article 180.4 of the Civil Code
The central legal issue revolves around the interpretation of Article 180.4 of the Civil Code. Traditionally, this provision had been invoked to argue that the existence of an adoption prevented biological filiation from producing civil effects.
Both the first-instance judgment and its confirmation on appeal adopt a different reading.
Article 180.4 of the Civil Code:
“The determination of filiation by nature does not affect the adoption.”
The ruling maintains that Article 180.4 does not prohibit the coexistence of filiations, but rather establishes that adoption is not automatically affected by the determination of filiation by nature.
On the basis of this interpretation, it affirms that biological filiation may be recognised with civil effects without the need to annul the previously registered adoptive filiation.
Legal scope
The reasoning includes the consideration that the legal system already grants relevance to biological ties in various areas — such as the prohibition of marriage between siblings and the legal consequences arising from consanguinity — which demonstrates that biological bonds do not disappear simply because an adoption has been constituted.
The result is a situation of dual filiation with full civil effects, without known precedent in Spanish judicial practice and, as far as publicly available information indicates, without record of equivalent rulings in other international legal systems.
The judgment does not merely recognise a biological origin. It recognises a filiation with real effects and allows that filiation to be registered, used and legally deployed.
Finality and implementation
Both judgments are final, and the declaration of filiation has been fully implemented in the administrative and registry sphere.
The biological identity of Olmo Gómez Aldaz has been judicially recognised and projected onto his official documentation, without the adoptive filiation having been annulled.
That coexistence is precisely the singular element of the case: an effective dual filiation, judicially recognised and deployed in the civil sphere.
Judgment PDF
Anonymised judgment published in the Judicial Documentation Centre (CENDOJ) of the General Council of the Judiciary.