Opinion ID: 1928874
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Paternity Test Results

Text: Rial next asserts that the trial court erred in refusing two other proffered jury instructions. Rial's jury instruction No. 4, in pertinent part, stated: Evidence of the blood test has been introduced, and based on that evidence an opinion has been expressed concerning the degree of probability that the Defendant is the father of the child. You must bear in mind that the probability of paternity results of this blood test are in part based upon the assumption that there is a fifty (50%) percent chance that the Defendant is the father of the child. You must therefore bear in mind that neither the making of such an assumption, nor the probability of paternity results, constitute any evidence that the Defendant had vaginal sexual intercourse with Deborah... at or about the time when ... the child was conceived. . . . . If the Plaintiff has failed to prove ... independent of the probability of paternity results, that the Defendant had vaginal sexual intercourse with Deborah ... at or about the time when ... the child was conceived, then regardless of the probability of paternity results, you must find that the Defendant is not the father of the child. Rial also asked the court to instruct the jury, If you find that the Defendant had vaginal sexual intercourse with Deborah... at or about the time when ... the child was conceived, you may then consider the probability of paternity results. The court refused both requested instructions, but instructed the jury as follows: INSTRUCTION NUMBER 6 Evidence of blood testing has been introduced and, based upon that evidence, an opinion has been expressed concerning the degree of probability that the defendant is the father of Joseph.... You must bear in mind that the probability of paternity results of these blood tests are, in part, based upon the assumption that there is a fifty percent chance that the defendant is the child's father and a fifty percent chance that he is not the child's father. You must, therefore, bear in mind that neither the making of such an assumption nor the probability of paternity results, in and of themselves, constitute evidence that the defendant had sexual intercourse with Deborah ... at or about the time the child was conceived. INSTRUCTION NUMBER 7 If you find that the defendant had sexual intercourse with Deborah ... at or about the time when Joseph ... was conceived, you may then consider the probability of paternity results. Admitted into evidence is Exhibit Number 3, which shows the results of genetic testing and the statistical probability of paternity. This evidence alone does not establish paternity, but is evidence which may be considered by you, together with all other evidence, facts and circumstances in the case, to determine whether the defendant is the father of the child. Rial objected to instruction No. 6, but did not object to instruction No. 7. In any event, Rial asked the court to substitute his proposed instructions in place of both instruction No. 6 and instruction No. 7. It is not error for a trial court to refuse a requested instruction if the substance of the proposed instruction is contained in those instructions actually given. Reavis v. Solminski, 250 Neb. 711, 551 N.W.2d 528 (1996); Postma v. B & R Stores, 250 Neb. 466, 550 N.W.2d 34 (1996). All of the jury instructions must be read together. Hamernick v. Essex Dodge Ltd., 247 Neb. 392, 527 N.W.2d 196 (1995). Failure to object to a jury instruction after it has been submitted to counsel for review precludes raising an objection on appeal absent plain error. Barks v. Cosgriff Co., 247 Neb. 660, 529 N.W.2d 749 (1995). The substance of Rial's proposed instructions is twofold. First, the jury had to find that Rial had sexual intercourse with Deborah during the period of conception before it could consider probability of paternity results. Second, the probability of paternity results are predicated on a 50-percent base presumption of paternity; meaning, either Rial or some random man not excluded by the blood and tissue test results had intercourse with Deborah during her period of conception. Rial waived any error with respect to instruction No. 7 by his failure to object. Furthermore, the instructions given by the court adequately informed the jury it had to first find Rial engaged in sexual intercourse with Deborah before it could consider the paternity testing results, and the court adequately informed the jury of the so-called 50-percent base presumption of paternity. Because Rial did not assign as error the validity of the 50percent base presumption, we will not address whether application of such a presumption is appropriate under the circumstances. As such, the court did not err in refusing Rial's proposed jury instructions.