Court Opinion

ID: 9638881
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 15:57:26.875312+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:37:06.851428
License: Public Domain

Dooley, J.,
dissenting. One night in September of 1996, defendant’s teenage daughter Christina Godin called plaintiff and said that children at her school were telling her that he was not her father. This was plaintiff’s first notice of what is now undisputed, that plaintiff is not the biological father of Christina. The truth came out fully only after Christina wrote notes to various of her relatives asking whether plaintiff was her father, and defendant finally admitted he was not to plaintiff’s sister and apparently to Christina.
Because plaintiff believes there should be legal consequences stemming from the true facts, which had been withheld from him for fifteen years, he is labeled by the majority as disavowing his relationship with Christina and destroying her “long-held assumptions, solely for his own self-interest.” I take it the majority is making this accusation, so at variance with the actual facts of the case, to suggest its result is just and consistent with the public interest. To the contrary, the undisputed facts demonstrate that, at its core, this is a classic case of defending an unjust result by blaming the victim. Accordingly, I dissent.
I accept the majority’s statement of the facts, with the proviso that we must assume the validity of all assertions in plaintiff’s complaint and accompanying affidavit because the family court made no findings, ruling that defendant was entitled to judgment as a matter of law irrespective of the facts. See Thayer v. Herdt, 155 Vt. 448, 456, 586 A.2d 1122, 1126 (1990) (holding that, when awarding judgment on the pleadings, trial court must accept well-pleaded facts alleged by nonprevailing party). Hence the inclusion, at the outset of my opinion, of certain additional circumstances alleged by plaintiff but omitted by the majority. I further note that, although plaintiff has sought a paternity test, that step is really unnecessary because defendant has not denied plaintiff’s assertion that he is not Christina’s father and *527has admitted she was sexually active with another man after plaintiff returned to military duty in July 1981.*
The majority leads off with the assertion that we have already held that a father cannot prevail in these circumstances in Lerman v. Lerman, 148 Vt. 629, 629, 528 A.2d 1121, 1122 (1987), and that plaintiff is asking us to overrule that memorandum decision. This is an overstatement of Lerman, which holds only that res judicata applies to paternity adjudications and prevents relitigation when the matter should have been litigated in the divorce. Id. at 629, 528 A.2d at 1122. In filing his complaint to reopen the judgment based on fraud on the court, plaintiff accepted that res judicata applied, but alleged that grounds for reopening a judgment existed because of defendant’s fraud on the superior court in 1990. Unless paternity judgments are somehow immune from reopening based on grounds applicable to any other judgment, plaintiff is actually invoking, not warring with, Lerman.
As the majority recognizes, V.R.C.E 60(b) establishes two alternative procedures for obtaining relief from a judgment: (1) a motion for relief under the rule, and (2) an independent action, including an independent action “to set aside a judgment for fraud upon the court.” Reporter’s Notes, V.R.C.E 60. The majority concludes, however, that although defendant’s actions may have been a fraud on plaintiff, they were not a fraud on the court. This conclusion ignores our settled law on this subject.
I agree that we should look initially to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b), especially as interpreted by Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. v. Hartford-Empire Co., 322 U.S. 238 (1944). The key test under Hazel-Atlas is whether the fraud affects only the parties before the court or, alternatively, “far more than an injury to a single litigant.” Id. at 246. Thus, the fraud must involve a “direct assault on the integrity of the judicial process.” 11 C. Wright, A. Miller & M. Kane, Federal Practice & Procedure § 2870, at 416 (2d ed. 1995).
What I do not accept is that commercial law decisions from federal courts involving corporate parties have much to tell us about applying the principles of Hazel-Atlas to family proceedings. Far more rele*528vant is the observation of the Minnesota Supreme Court that a narrow definition of fraud on the court “has no place in family law” where the court “sits as a third party.” Maranda v. Maranda, 449 N.W.2d 158, 165 (Minn. 1989). Thus, other courts have found fraud on the court in cases comparable to that before us. See, e.g., In re M.E., 622 N.E.2d 578, 583 (Ind. Ct. App. 1993); In re Tompkins, 518 N.E.2d 500, 506-07 (Ind. Ct. App. 1988); Cain v. Cain, 777 S.W2d 238, 239 (Ky. 1989).
Because of the broad public interest involved in divorce proceedings, we have made essentially the same point as the Minnesota court, noting that “the state is virtually a party.” Siebert v. Siebert, 124 Vt. 187, 192, 200 A.2d 258, 261 (1964). Unlike the complaint in most other cases, a divorce complaint must be signed under oath by the plaintiff. See V.R.F.E 4(b)(1)(A). Even if uncontested, the divorce action must be heard by the court. See V.R.F.E 4(d). The court must make findings and is not bound in doing so by uncontradicted testimony. See Davis v. Davis, 128 Vt. 495, 497, 266 A.2d 466, 468 (1970).
Again because of the public interest involved, this Court has held that presenting a false complaint in a divorce, or using false testimony to obtain a divorce, is a fraud upon the court. In In re Goodrich, 111 Vt. 156, 11 A.2d 325 (1940), a lawyer presented to the court a divorce complaint which, because recrimination then barred a divorce, stated that plaintiff had faithfully performed her marital covenants. The lawyer knew that the plaintiff had been convicted of adultery when he filed the complaint. We suspended the lawyer from the practice of law for one year because of this misconduct, finding that it represented a fraud upon the superior court. Id. at 159-60, 11 A.2d at 326-27. Similarly, we held in Blondin v. Brooks, 83 Vt. 472, 486, 76 A. 184, 189-90 (1910), that misrepresenting residency in order to obtain a divorce was a fraud on the court.
The majority seeks to distinguish Goodrich on the basis that the fraud there was attributable to the lawyer. The majority is arguing that a party, who knowingly signs a false pleading under oath, does not commit a fraud on the court, while a lawyer who delivers that pleading to the court does commit such a fraud. I find this distinction illogical since both involve fraud and the effect “on the court” are the same. Nothing in Goodrich suggests that this Court drew such an illogical distinction.
The attempt to distinguish Blondín is more curious. The majority does not dispute that this Court found that obtaining a foreign divorce by a misrepresentation of residency is a fraud on the foreign court *529such that this Court does not have to recognize the divorce. I believe that this is the real holding of the case and fail to understand the relevancy of the majority’s further suppositions as to the Blondín Court’s underlying motivation. Under any view of the Court’s motives, the holding on fraud on the court is entitled to stare decisis effect here. In fact, the majority has sub silentio overruled Goodrich and Blondín because it disagrees with them, and not because they can be distinguished.
Rather than overruling these cases, we should recognize that the force of Blondín and Goodrich is even greater when the issue involves children. The “court embodies the public’s paramount interest in the care and maintenance of the[] children” before it in a divorce. White v. White, 141 Vt. 499, 503, 450 A.2d 1108, 1110 (1982). Thus, the “duty and first obligation” of the court is to consider the welfare of the children, and it is not bound by any agreements of the parties in doing so. Frink v. Frink, 128 Vt. 531, 534, 266 A.2d 820, 822 (1970). A misrepresentation of paternity makes it impossible for the court to discharge properly its “duty and first obligation.”
I think it is beyond question that defendant perpetrated a fraud upon the superior court. She signed under oath a divorce complaint stating that Christina was born of the marriage between plaintiff and defendant and requested that defendant be ordered to pay child support for Christina. Although we do not have her divorce testimony before us, it is very likely that she continued this fraudulent misstatement in her testimony, again under oath. She signed a stipulation that Christina was the “parties’ minor child,” knowing that to be false, in order to induce the court to issue a child support order against plaintiff.
The majority has responded that defendant was technically accurate in the pleading because “born of the marriage” actually means “born during the marriage,” that defendant’s statement in the stipulation was equivocal, and that we do not know what defendant actually said in her divorce hearing. Quite apart from the regrettable inducement to sharp pleading represented by such a reading of plaintiff’s divorce complaint — an invitation that is particularly unfortunate in the context of family court proceedings where the welfare of children is at issue — the majority confuses the application of a rebuttable evidentiary presumption, see discussion infra, with the more straightforward process of understanding the actual words that appear in the divorce complaint. No credible theory of language interpretation would accommodate the metamorphosis of “born of the *530marriage” into “born during the marriage.” Regardless of the legal presumption that children born to a married woman are the offspring of the woman and her husband, I doubt any one reading the words in the divorce complaint would regard them as anything other than a statement that Mark Godin is the father of Christina Godin. Indeed, the majority’s constant insistence that the divorce decree is res judicata as to plaintiff’s paternity is undermined by its holding that defendant never asserted that plaintiff was the biological father of Christina.
' I have the same reaction to the claim that defendant did not commit fraud in signing the stipulation. There is nothing equivocal about a statement that Christina is the “parties’ minor child,” whatever was the purpose of the stipulation. Of course, plaintiff might have brought out more about the nature of defendant’s representations if his claim had not been dismissed before any factual development.
The majority has also determined that the paternity adjudication inherent in the divorce cannot be reopened because “absent a clear and convincing showing that it would serve the best interests of the child, a prior adjudication of paternity is conclusive.” I assume this is a throw-away line because plaintiff has never been allowed to make any showing and the majority is not now remanding to allow him to do so. I would only add that a rule requiring exploration of the best interest of Christina in light of the new reality that plaintiff is not her father would be far more desirable than the Court’s holding, which makes that irterest irrelevant.
Finally, I do not agree that there are compelling policy reasons to impose the result the majority has reached. First, the majority has greatly overstated the effect of the presumption of paternity. There are states in which the presumption of paternity would support the decision the majority has reached. See Michael H. v. Gerald D., 491 U. S. 110 (1989) (upholding California’s irrebuttable presumption statute); In re J.W.T., 872 S.W.2d 189 (Tex. 1994) (striking down similar Texas statute). Vermont is not one of them. 15 V.S.A. § 308(4) creates a rebuttable presumption of paternity. In this state, rebuttable presumptions operate only to assign the burden of production. See V. R.E. 301(a). Once the party against whom the presumption operates bursts the bubble by presenting evidence that the fact is not as presumed, the function of the presumption is over and the fact-finder must determine the fact, here paternity, based on the evidence and not the presumption. See id. 301(c)(3); Reporter’s Notes, V.R.E. 301. The presumption is rebutted by any evidence that the fact is not as presumed.
*531My point is that the Vermont presumption of paternity never operates to determine paternity contrary to the evidence, see id., exactly the effect the majority seeks to assign it here. By adopting a rebuttable presumption, the Legislature has refused to make a man a father based on a legal fiction, rather than on his action. In this case, plaintiff rebutted the presumption of paternity, and it should not stand in his way to a just result.
We are left then with the majority’s assertion that our policy must preserve the stability of family units and require plaintiff to continue his relationship with Christina whether or not he is her biological father. The policy of requiring the husband of the mother of a child to accept paternity, despite biological evidence to the contrary, is based on two rationales: (1) because of the stigma and legal disability of illegitimacy, the law should avoid placing children in this status; and (2) the law should promote intact families. See Michael H. v. Gerald D., 491 U.S. at 125. The policies and rationales were developed in early English law dating back to the 16th century. See id. at 124-25.
The rationales are greatly weakened by modern conditions. Approximately 25% of children in this state are born of parents who are not married to each other. See Vermont Dep’t of Health, Agency of Human Servs., State of Vermont 1995 Vital Statistics (1997) at 31. The legal disadvantages of illegitimacy have largely been eliminated as a matter of federal constitutional law. See Smith v. Cole, 553 So. 2d 847, 850 n.4 (La. 1989) (citing Supreme Court cases invoking Equal Protection rights of illegitimate children). The rights of putative fathers have expanded. See id. at 851 (citing Supreme Court cases delineating Due Process rights of biological fathers). Societal attitudes about the obligation of biological parents to support their offspring have changed. As the Indiana Supreme Court has observed:
[Stability and finality are significant objectives to be served when deciding the status of children of divorce. On the other hand, there is a substantial public policy in correctly identifying parents and their offspring. Proper identification of parents and child should prove to be in the best interests of the child for medical or psychological reasons. It also plays a role in the just determination of child support; we have already declared that public policy disfavors a support order against a man who is not the child’s father. Conversely, . . . there is a substantial public policy which favors a support order against a man who is a child’s father.
*532In re S.R.I., 602 N.E.2d 1014, 1016 (Ind. 1992) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). In discussing those Pennsylvania cases which are consistent with the majority decision here:
Substituting a legal fiction for a biological reality results in a host of inequities for the child, the presumptive father (i.e. the husband), and the alleged father. The child has a legitimate interest in knowing the identity of his biological father. The child’s interests include knowing his lineal descent — for medical purposes, for inheritance and for other financial reasons.
With regard to the presumptive father and the alleged father, both have a legitimate interest in knowing the identity of the natural father. One should not be forced to provide financial support for another man’s child. Furthermore, this legal fiction of paternity may result in the denial of the right to visitation and/or custody for either the presumptive or the alleged father. As the United States Supreme Court stated [in Michael H.], in today’s society “there is no room for dual parentage.”
Comment, Challenging the Paternity of Children Born During Wedlock, 100 Dick. L. Rev. 963, 964-65 (1996). The first rationale no longer supports the policies the majority espouses.
The second rationale has even less support. It was formulated when families were required to stay together, and divorce was unavailable. Through no-fault divorce laws, we have accepted the break-up of family units that no longer seek to stay together. This family unit broke apart long ago, and no one suggests that it can be reunited. Requiring plaintiff to make child support payments from a divorce decree cannot be justified based on the desirability of keeping family units intact.
The majority opinion is premised on the belief that it is in the public interest to force the continuation somehow of a parent-child bond between plaintiff and Christina. We can force the continued payment of child support, but we cannot by this decision perpetuate a father-daughter relationship against plaintiff’s will. The disclosure that plaintiff is not Christina’s biological father has fundamentally altered this family whether we like it or not. The constitution gives us many powers, but we cannot order that plaintiff love Christina as his daughter or provide her the parental guidance we would expect of a father. Nor can we order Christina to treat plaintiff as her father.
*533Even if I thought that the policy reasons assigned by the majority were strong, I would question whether they outweigh the countervailing policy considerations. Although this Court is barring the door to prevent husbands from reopening divorce decrees to contest paternity determinations, the Legislature has provided that a wide range of persons can bring a parentage action against the natural parent to pursue support. See 15 V.S.A. § 302(a). Those include the child or the child’s natural representative, the natural parent (i.e. the mother), the Office of Child Support under an assignment from a welfare recipient, and the Office of Child Support when requested by a parent. Id. I do not believe this decision is consistent with the Legislative policy. While other parties can, if they desire, require the court to shift the burden of paying child support onto the biological parent, where it belongs, the person bearing that burden improperly has no remedy to initiate that shift.
In recent years, we have placed far more emphasis on requiring responsible parents to pay for the support of their children consistent with their financial ability. This decision goes in the opposite direction. The biological father of Christina has escaped any responsibility for his action, while plaintiff is required to support a child who is not his. The result is neither just, nor consistent with our child support policy.
Finally, in our decision today we are rewarding fraud. The majority calls plaintiff’s actions self-serving while ignoring that defendant misled her husband and her daughter for fifteen years and then precipitated this case by finally disclosing the truth, and doing so in a manner that caused plaintiff to hear this revelation from a child he had thought was his daughter. The majority questions why plaintiff did not act earlier, while ignoring that defendant intentionally kept from him the facts upon which the majority requires that he act. We are condoning affirmative misrepresentations to the court, not of collateral matters, but of the central facts upon which the divorce court must act to protect the children before it.
Because this decision is inconsistent with our own precedents as well as thoughtful decisions from other courts, is based on policies that are archaic and counterproductive to the concerns and interests we should respect, and is unjust to plaintiff, I respectfully dissent from the decision to affirm the dismissal of plaintiff’s complaint. I would reverse and remand for a hearing and decision on the merits of plaintiff’s action to reopen the divorce judgment based on defendant’s fraud on the superior court.

For this reason, I attribute no significance to the fact that defendant gave birth to Christina over nine months after her last act of intercourse with plaintiff before he returned to military duty. If there were a serious dispute over paternity, this fact might support either side. I do not believe it would be determinative, however, because, as the majority states, it is not uncommon for the human gestation period to exceed nine months.