Source: https://betterchancery.com/2011/05/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 22:50:46+00:00

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Ever since the supreme court’s ruling in Williams v. Williams, 843 So.2d 720 (Miss. 2003), that a man under a support order who is proven by DNA testing not to be the father of the child can not be required to continue to support the child, the procedure to be followed has been anything but clear. Up to now, it has been up to each chancellor or county judge to find a way.
If parentage was established through a court order, and the father had been offered genetic testing and declined, he will not be granted the relief of disestablishment of parentage.
If parentage was established by the father signing the birth certificate, he will have one year within which to request genetic testing. After that, he can not contest parentage except on a showing of fraud, duress or material mistake of fact. Current law allows only 60 days to contest parentage.
If parentage was established because the parents were married at the time of the birth, the legal father will be allowed to petition for genetic testing so long as he did not continue to hold himself out as the father after learning that he was not the father, or if he prevented the actual biological father from asserting his parental rights. This last provision appears to reflect and cover the situation addressed in the case of Lee v. Lee, 12 So.3d 548 (Miss. App. 2009), which was discussed in a previous post.
This is intended only to be a general summary, so you should read the actual provisions when they appear in your legislative advance sheets.
Proving your case by proving certain factors is a fact of legal life in Mississippi. I’ve referred to it as trial by checklist. If you’re not putting on proof of the factors when they apply in your case, you are wasting your and the court’s time, as well as your client’s money, and you are committing malpractice to boot.
Many lawyers have told me that they print out these checklists and use them at trial. I encourage you to copy these checklists and use them in your trial notebooks. And while you’re at it, you’re free to copy any post for your own personal use, but not for commercial use. Lawyers have told me that they are building notebooks tabbed with various subjects and inserting copies of my posts (along with other useful material, I imagine). Good. If it improves practice and makes your (and my) job easier and more effective, I’m all for it.
I posted Monday about Freedom Summer in Meridian. One of the courageous COFO workers who spent time in Meridian in that summer of 1964, and whom I mentioned in my post, was Mark Levy, who came with his wife Betty to Meridian from Queens College in New York.
Mark took the time to send me a thoughtful response to my post, and I think it is worth your time to read. He raises some intriguing points about preserving the story of how the civil rights movement touched and changed Meridian, and how it can be passed on. There is food for thought here, and a call to action.
As Mark says, there are the seeds of the beginning of a conversation here. Will you join the discussion?
The summer of 1964 touched on people’s lives in Meridian in many different ways. Chancery Judge Primeaux’s narrative is an important and sensitive step in opening up that conversation. I’m glad that my old photos of daily life in the Freedom School are a contribution.
Similarly important was last month’s April 29th recognition by the Mississippi Heritage Trust in Jackson that the Fielder and Brooks Drug Store building and site of the 1964 COFO office at 2505 ½ 5th Street is an endangered but historically significant building in the state, well worth preserving. The Meridian civil rights story needs to be documented and shown. The 2505 ½ 5th Street site would be perfect not only as an interpretive, but also as an educational center and local attraction.
In addition to the pictures I found in my files, I also found the names of about 250 students – ages 8 to 18, at the time – who attended summer classes in the Freedom School. We, the volunteer teachers, learned as much from our students that summer as we were able to teach them. The students were brave and serious young people who took all sorts of risks to come to school. The former students are now in their late 50s and 60s. Where are they today? How did those experiences touch their lives? Who stayed, who left, and who has come back to Meridian? What contributions have those former students made to their respective communities?
The decisions for students to attend — or not attend — Freedom School were family decisions. In 1964, that meant that parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. all decided to take on some family risk in sending their kids to the Baptist Seminary. Not only should a history of Meridian tell the story of how a famous folk singer like Pete Seeger performed in Meridian, but it should also be noted that the room was packed with people who took a risk in coming to hear him. Another footnote to the Meridian civil rights story is that the Meridian Freedom School at the Baptist Seminary had the honor to play host in August to a state-wide convention of young delegates from Freedom Schools all over Mississippi. The resolutions passed by the students attending reveal a wide range of issues, concerns, and hopes – worth looking at again to see what progress, if any, has been made since those times.
Similarly, in my files, I’ve found the names of about 45 out-of-state volunteers, in addition to Mickey and Rita Schwerner, who participated – at one time or another — in COFO-sponsored community center, voter registration, freedom school, and MFDP work in Meridian during 1964-65. We stayed in the homes of some very brave local people, rented some living and office space, ate in selected establishments, cashed personal checks in some stores, asked cab drivers and others how to get around, attended some church services and used some churches for meetings. In the highly charged atmosphere of the times, those ordinary decisions could have life and death – in addition to job – consequences. We, the volunteers, took risks; but the local families and organizations who invited us to come took far more risks than us.
Several of the pictures I found in my files show a Lauderdale County meeting of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party where Meridian and county “precinct” and “beat” representatives elected ordinary people as local delegates to go to the national convention in Atlantic City. The MFDP was formed to show that people prevented from registering in 1964 truly wanted to participate in the electoral system. The civil rights movement in Meridian involved commitment and participation from both young and old. The pressures against taking a stand were powerful and frightening.
Does anyone know where Martin Luther King Jr. came to speak in Mississippi during the summer of 1964? I believe he spoke in just two places – and that included speaking at two churches in Meridian.
The civil rights summer of 1964 should be taken as just one moment in history – with important precedents and ongoing effects. For example: a) In Meridian, an NAACP chapter existed for a number of years prior, sometimes recruiting with quiet, hand-collection of dues. They had a growing youth membership that later became part of the local COFO movement in 1964. That NAACP chapter continues to exist today. b) The Fielder and Brooks pharmacy, itself, was just one example of black professional accomplishment that had been developing for years in Meridian. c) 1965 and the years thereafter, school, college and public facility de-segregation and voter registration brought other challenges and additional sets of heroes and heroines who stepped forward and deserve to be respected and remembered.
What does all of this mean today – especially for younger people? What can research projects in Meridian’s high school, junior college, and senior college contribute to finding, recording, and telling about local people’s hopes, fears, and contributions? What remains to be improved? What stories do old-timers – both black and white – have to tell of those times in Meridian? How would preserving the Fielder/COFO building help in both saving and using that history?
I believe that Judge Primeaux has done a great service in his blog starting a new discussion of those questions.
Governor Barbour appointed Circuit Judge Ermea “E.J.” Russell of Hinds County, effective May 23, 2011, to fill the unexpired term on the COA formerly held by Judge Leslie King, who was earlier elevated to the Mississippi Supreme Court.
Judge Russell, who was Hinds County’s first black, female Circuit Judge, is the COA’s first black, female judge. She has been a member of the judiciary since her appointment by Governor Fordice in 1998.
The State Judiciary website press release on her swearing in is here.
The appointment continues the trend of excluding chancery judges from the appellate courts.
I posted here about the then-new procedure for renewing a judgment that went into effect in 2010. That provision clarified some old statutory provisions that allowed for renewal of a judgment, but did not specify a procedure.
Effective July 1, 2011, MCA § 15-1-43 is amended to apply only to judgments or decrees that have not yet expired. The attorney applying to renew the judgment must certify that the judgment has not expired when making the application to renew the existing judgment.
It’s official. The 19th-century term “bastardy” that appeared in our paternity laws is banished from the statutes, effective March 14, 2011, by edict of the legislature. Bastardy bows out.
The archaic term will be replaced with the concept of parentage, which is an improvement over the concept of paternity. All future printings of the code will reflect the change.
In the recent COA case Miller v. Mills, decided May 3, 2011, Judge Maxwell used the term parentage in the context of a paternity action that had been filed in Louisiana, the judgment from which was sought to be enrolled and enforced in Mississippi: “Therefore, Ryan’s filing of a petition to establish parentage, custody, and visitation initiated a ‘child custody proceeding.’” ¶ 9. The opinion replaces the term paternity with parentage except where a specific statutory provision is mentioned. The signal is that the new term is parentage, and that bastardy, paternity and filiation are fading away.
If the statutory language is segueing into the 21st century, wouldn’t it be a good idea for your pleadings to do likewise? “Complaint to Establish Parentage.” Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
We are all familiar with the scenario: Modification case pending and one of the facts supporting the charge of material change/adverse effect/best interest is the fact that mom allowed junior and his friends to have beer at a senior graduation party she allowed to take place at her home. Dad, who wants the modification, is incensed. Mom minimizes it, insisting that no one got drunk, no one was allowed to operate a vehicle after drinking, and besides, these are all young men and women who are about to go off to college, and what’s the big deal?
The Mississippi Legislature passed a bill, effective July 1, 2011, that amends MCA § 67-3-70, to prohibit adults from allowing a party to take place at a private residence or private premises if a minor at the party obtains any alcoholic beverage or beer and the adult knows or reasonably should have known that the minor has done so. The offense is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $1,000 or not more than 90 days incarceration.
The public policy of the state, then, appears to weigh against mom’s position.
I don’t find a case where the issue was squarely before the appellate courts. I have seen cases at the trial level where the issue is raised among others with respect to custody. In the case of Self v. Lewis, decided by the COA on May 17, 2011, there is this language at ¶ 40: “Providing alcohol to a minor is a crime, and the “[c]ommission of crimes by a custodial parent . . . is properly the concern of a chancellor.” Sullivan v. Stringer, 736 So. 2d 514, 516 (¶14) (Miss. App. 1999). In Self, the custodial father had a relationship with an 18-year-old woman to whom he served alcohol. Sullivan involved the crime of cohabitation.
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