Jackson's Marriage to Rowe 'Arranged'

Feb. 15, -- TMZ has obtained a ruling from a California Court of Appeal, issued today, rejecting Michael Jackson's claim that Debbie Rowe gave up her parental rights. In the decision, there's a revealing passage from the trial judge who commented on the marriage between Jackson and Rowe.

"It was an arranged deal from the beginning... This was not a mom and dad saying, 'Hey, let's have a family that we're going to raise.'"

The ruling explains that in October, 1999, while they were married, Rowe and Jackson entered into an agreement that Jackson would have sole legal and physical custody of their two children, Michael Jr. and Paris. In 2001, the trial judge issued an order terminating Rowe's parental rights. But the following year, Rowe went back into court arguing that the court's termination order was invalid. The trial judge struck down his own order, admitting he had made a mistake by not appointing independent lawyers for the children. Now the California Court of Appeal has also ruled that the order terminating Rowe's parental rights was invalid.

TMZ