DocketNumber: No. FA93-0063955
Citation Numbers: 1994 Conn. Super. Ct. 6566, 9 Conn. Super. Ct. 701
Judges: DRANGINIS, J.
Filed Date: 6/13/1994
Status: Non-Precedential
Modified Date: 4/17/2021
The plaintiff has also filed motions, pursuant to General Statutes §§
The plaintiff's motions do not specify which individuals they want to test. However, at oral argument, the plaintiff proposed the comparison of the "DNA prints" of Michael Welch's relatives with the prints of Kaitlyn and the plaintiff for purposes of determining whether Michael Welch was Kaitlyn's father.
Defendant Richard Welch, as the administrator of Michael Welch's estate, has filed a motion to strike the plaintiff's paternity action on the ground that a paternity action must be determined during the lifetime CT Page 6567 of the putative father and does not survive his death. In his motion, the defendant has failed to distinctly specify his claims of insufficiency as is required by Practice Book § 154. The court, however, will consider the merits of the motion. See Rowe v. Godou,
A motion to strike challenges the legal sufficiency of a pleading. Practice Book § 152; Ferryman v. Groton,
At common law there was no remedy to compel a putative father to contribute to the support of his illegitimate offspring. Moore v. McNamara,
Accordingly, "[i]t is the long established policy of this state to require a father to support his illegitimate child." Kuser v. Orkis,
"Under Connecticut law all minor children, whether born in wedlock or out of wedlock, are owed a legal duty of support by their parents. This duty of support is enforceable throughout the child's minority." Moore v.McNamara,
In Hayes v. Smith,
In affirming the decision of the trial court, theHayes court looked to selected portions of General Statutes §
The plaintiff in Hayes argued, inter alia, that her paternity action should survive even though it was not instituted during the lifetime of the putative father according to the survival statute, General Statutes §
(a) A cause of action shall not be lost or destroyed by the death of any person, but shall survive in favor of or against the executor or administrator of the deceased person . . . . (c) the provisions of this section shall not apply (1) to any cause or right of action or proceeding the purpose or object to which is defeated or rendered useless by the death of any party thereto, (2) to any civil action or proceeding whose prosecution or defense depends upon the continued existence of the persons who are plaintiffs or defendants, or (3) to any civil action upon a penal statute.
(Emphasis added.) General Statutes §
The court rejected this argument and reasoned that paternity proceedings fall within the second exception to General Statutes §
It is also apparent that because of the privacy surrounding the circumstances giving rise to the charge of paternity, the decedent's presence to defend properly is quite necessary. Because the question of paternity is one of fact and not of law; HolubCT Page 6570 v. King,
22 Conn. Sup. 118 ,120 ,163 A.2d 800 (1960); the decedent's continued availability would be a substantial factor in contributing to the reliability of the factfinding process on this question. See Lalli v. Lalli, [439 U.S. 259 ,99 S.Ct. 518 ,58 L.Ed 508 (1978)].
Id., 64.
The Hayes court included an "in-depth discussion" of Lalli v. Lalli. In that case, the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a New York statute that limited an illegitimate child's right to inherit from her natural father. The court held that an illegitimate child could only inherit by intestacy from her natural father where "``a court of competent jurisdiction has, during the lifetime, of the father, made an order of filiation declaring paternity in a proceeding instituted during the pregnancy of the mother or within two years from the birth of the child.'" (Emphasis added.) Id., 261-62. The Lalli court reasoned that due to peculiar problems of proof in establishing paternity, the state had a right to require a filiation decree as the only acceptable form of proof to establish paternity.Id., 268. The court stated, "[e]ven where an individual claiming to be the illegitimate child of a deceased man makes himself known, the difficulties facing an estate are likely to persist. Because of the particular problems of proof, spurious claims may be difficult to expose."Id., 271.
It is clear that the court in Hayes was preoccupied with a "proof problem" inherent to a paternity action against a putative father who is deceased. That decision was released in 1984. Since that time, there have been remarkable advancements made in the medical field in regard to blood and genetic testing for purposes of establishing paternity. Our legislature has recognized these advancements by twice amending General Statutes §
In Moore v. McNamara, supra, a 1986 case, our CT Page 6571 Supreme Court admitted the use of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) test, to establish paternity.3 The HLA antigens occur in the white blood cells as well as the tissue cells. Although blood cells are the easiest cells to obtain for HLA tests, HLA testing is thought of as tissue typing rather than blood group typing. Id., 28.
When combined with red cell tests, the HLA tests may increase the probability of excluding a wrongly accused father to over 99 percent. (Citation omitted.) Id., 29. The court stated:
We note that combined blood grouping and testing has attained general acceptance in the scientific community as a means for testing for paternity . . . . The American Medical Association, the American Association of Blood Banking, and the American Association of Histocompatibility have all approved HLA testing to determine paternity . . . . . Moreover, while there is some disagreement among medical commentators as to how inculpatory HLA test results should be presented to the fact finder in paternity cases, nearly all agree that such evidence is reliable and should be admitted in one form or another.
Id., 31.
In Palomba v. Gray,
The use of these new techniques (HLA tests) has raised to such a high level the ability of the scientific community to identify the father of a child whose paternity is disputed that the resolution of such an important issue should no longer be had without such scientific testimony . . . . [Responsible scientific authorities claim that modern scientific techniques have increased the probability of excluding a mistakenly accused man as a father of a child to levels exceeding 99%.] CT Page 6572
(Original footnote No. 1 in brackets.) Id., 36-37.
In 1989, the Connecticut legislature amended General Statutes §
In addition to HLA testing, the advent of "DNA fingerprinting" has provided an even more remarkable medical advancement. DNA is a molecule that carries the body's genetic information, and is contained in every living organism in every cell which has a nucleus (over 99% of the cells in the human body.) DNA fingerprinting allows the analyst to create a "print" of a person's genetic pattern as found in DNA extracted from the person's blood or tissue sample. Each person's genetic structure is unique and given the role that DNA plays in heredity, the prints can then be compared to other individuals' prints for purposes of determining whether the parties are related.7 J.E. Cullins, Jr. Should theLegitimate Child Be Forced to Pay for the Sins of herFather? Sudwischer v. Estate of Hoffpauir, 53 La. L. Rev. 1675, 1719 (May 1993.). In People v. Wesley,
DNA Fingerprinting is at the "cutting edge" of forensic science . . . . DNA fingerprinting is a genetic and molecular biological process that has its basis in the fact that each individual has an entirely unique genetic "signature" derived in turn from the fact that the overall configuration of the DNA, found in every cell in the human body (and for that matter in every living organism) containing a nucleus-over 99% of the cells of the human body — is different in every individual except in the case of identical twins. This fact is not only generally accepted by the scientific community to which it is related, but is uniformly accepted therein. CT Page 6573
Related to this fact and fully accepted by the scientific community, is the further factor that in each individual the configuration of DNA contained in one cell is the same for every cell in the body of that individual. Thus, for the purpose of DNA fingerprinting, DNA for comparative purposes can be obtained from blood, semen, hair roots, skin, and indeed from over 99% of the cells of the human body.
The immediate advantage of DNA fingerprinting . . . . is the claimed certainty of identification . . . . The laboratory the People propose to utilize claims a mean power of certainty of identification for American Whites of 1 in 840,000,000, for American Black, 1 in 1.4 billion . . . .
(Footnotes omitted; citations omitted.) Id., 644.
The use of DNA fingerprinting has also been recognized as extremely effective in proving paternity. William C. Thompson Simon Ford, DNA Acceptance andWeight of the New Genetic Identification Tests, 75 Va. L. Rev. 45, 61 n. 76 (April 1989). Following a Newsweek account that "DNA prints" yield a "certainty" rather than a "possibility of paternity," the American BarAssociation Journal reported that "[i]n the family law area, it means a woman suing for paternity can establish conclusively whether the respondent is the father." Moss, DNA — The New Fingerprints, A.B.A., May 1, 1988 at 66. When both parents of the child are tested, the possibility of paternity, as expressed in a percentage, will either approach one hundred percent or zero percent. See J.E. Cullins, Jr., supra 1719.
When one parent is unavailable, as in the present case, DNA fingerprinting may also be utilized to effectively establish a "probability" of paternity by testing relatives of the unavailable parent. Id., 1714.8 The DNA "print" of a father, mother, or other relative of the deceased putative father can be compared to the DNA prints of the child and the available mother to determine whether the parties are related. Although the process can CT Page 6574 not be deemed conclusive, it has been recognized by the scientific community as quite valuable. PaternityTesting: Blood Group Systems and DNA Analysis by VariableNumber of Tandem Repeat Markers, Journal of Forensic Sciences, Vol. 35, No. 5, Sept 1990, pp 1217-1225. In one abstract, both the alleged father and his first wife were deceased. "DNA prints" from his second wife and her four children were compared with the "DNA print" of the child who was trying to establish paternity. The high probability of paternity (0.9999987) led the scientists conclude that the man probably was the actual father.Id.
Furthermore, at least two courts, including one state Supreme Court has recognized the reliability of testing relatives for purposes of establishing paternity. In Sudwischer v. Estate of Paul Hoffpauir,
In Tipps v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Company,
In 1993, the Connecticut legislature again amended General Statutes §
(a) In any proceeding in which the question of paternity is at issue the court . . . . on motion of any party, may order genetic tests which shall mean deoxyribonucleic acid tests . . . . to determine whether or not the putative father or husband is the father of the child. The results of such tests shall be admissible in evidence to either establish definite exclusion of the putative father or husband or as evidence that he is the father of the child.
(Emphasis added.) General Statutes §
"Principles of law which serve one generation well may, by reason of changing conditions, disserve a later one." Herald Publishing v. Bill,
Furthermore, our cultural reality has changed. More and more children are being born out of wedlock. These "innocent offspring", Heath v. White, supra 234, should not suffer the loss of property and the right to be supported by both parents simply because of the demise of the parents, or inaction by a birth mother in enforcing the property interests of her children against a putative father during his lifetime. No other legal representative of the illegitimate child is available, unless the child is a recipient of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and the state intervenes to force the mother to CT Page 6576 name the putative father for support enforcement purposes. General Statutes § 17-234et seq.
In the case of a putative father who has died, the child may well be eligible for support through Social Security rather than AFDC. Moreover, having the knowledge of one's own parentage, and adequate support therefrom, is key to the child's self-knowledge and self-esteem.
While the child may suffer the loss of the parent because of death, there may be at least the hope of reconciliation with his or her extended family and what one would expect to be emotional support for that "innocent", but also the possibility of financial support to assist the child in the preparation for the future which is for our future.
The fair prosecution of this paternity action does not necessarily depend upon the continued existence of Michael Welch. See General Statutes §
In consideration of the scientific techniques available to determine paternity, this court will not deny Kaitlyn the right to prove her paternity so that she may equitably share in her father's estate. The defendant's motion to strike denied.10
Lalli v. Lalli , 99 S. Ct. 518 ( 1978 )
People v. Wesley , 533 N.Y.S.2d 643 ( 1988 )
Sudwischer v. Estate of Hoffpauir , 1991 La. LEXIS 2895 ( 1991 )
Holub v. King , 22 Conn. Super. Ct. 118 ( 1960 )
Kuser v. Orkis , 169 Conn. 66 ( 1975 )
Herald Publishing Co. v. Bill , 142 Conn. 53 ( 1955 )
Levine v. Bess & Paul Sigel Hebrew Academy of Greater ... , 39 Conn. Super. Ct. 129 ( 1983 )