Court Opinion

ID: 9734813
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:46:59.416445+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:51.460411
License: Public Domain

CAYTON, Acting Judge.
The mother brought this action for the support of a four-year-old child. Defendant having failed to answer the complaint, a default was entered against him and he was ordered to make weekly payments for the support of the child. He then filed a motion to vacate the judgment on the ground that the court had no jurisdiction over the matter.1 The motion was denied and he appeals.
The defendant contends that the court lacked jurisdiction for the following reasons : the parties were never married; there is no finding that the child was born while the parties were married; the defendant has not acknowledged paternity under oath; no court has ever determined the defendant to be the father of the child; the child is at best the product of a “living together”; the child “was bom out of wedlock, and accordingly, no duty of support can be enforced or determined against the defendant. % * *»
*729A few weeks ago we went into this general situation, and held that the Domestic Relations Branch had jurisdiction to compel a father to support an illegitimate child. Johnson v. Johnson, D.C.Mun.App., 183 A. 2d 916. That decision is dispositive of the jurisdictional question here presented.
The defendant was clearly in default and neither in the trial court nor here has he attempted to explain such default. We would have no basis for holding that he was entitled to have the judgment set aside.
Affirmed.

. A previous motion to dismiss the complaint on the same ground was also denied.