Opinion ID: 1175974
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the admissibility of the divorce decree

Text: The defendant argues that the final decree of divorce stating that the husband was not responsible for the support or maintenance of the child was not admissible for the purpose of proving the defendant's paternity. Although the defendant waived any error committed by the trial judge on this point, a comment upon this apparent error may prevent its repetition upon retrial. The thrust of the defendant's case was that he was not the father of the child and that the former husband was the father. The record shows no basis for the determination in the final decree of divorce of the husband's non-responsibility for the support or maintenance of the child. It is possible that the jury drew an inference that the issue of non-paternity on the part of the husband had already been judicially decided. A determination of the husband's non-paternity in the divorce proceedings was certainly not binding upon the defendant, who was not a party thereto, nor was it admissible as evidence by the petitioner in the present case. In re Estate of Cunha, 49 Haw. 273, 290, 300, 414 P.2d 925, 934, 939 (1966). The divorce decree, if it was relevant and material at all, was admissible only for the purpose of establishing the mere fact of its own rendition and those legal consequences which result from that fact. It should not have been used as affirmative evidence against a stranger to the suit in which it was rendered to prove the existence of any fact underlying the divorce decree and support order, such as the issue of paternity. Id. at 300, 414 P.2d at 940. The court should take great pains to assure that the jury is not made aware of any prior judgment which might reasonably be construed to indicate an underlying determination of the paternity question in another action not binding on the party against whom it was offered.