Court Opinion

ID: 9569078
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:10:22.25062+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:21:56.522324
License: Public Domain

KONENKAMP, Justice
(concurring specially).
I wholeheartedly agree with the majority’s reasoning and result. Yet I fear the majority’s holding may be misconstrued as approving the six-year statute of limitations enacted in 1983 (SDCL 25-8-9, amended 1986) or that by declaring the two-year statute void, our general ten-year civil statute (SDCL 15-2-8) may be understood to supplant it. Accord 51 Am.Jur.2d Limitation of Actions § 62 (1970). As Justice O’Connor expressed, “A review of the factors used in deciding that the one year statute of limitation cannot withstand an equal protection challenge indicates that longer periods of limitation for paternity suits also may be unconstitutional.” Mills v. Habluetzel, 456 U.S. 91, 106, 102 S.Ct. 1549, 1558, 71 L.Ed.2d 770 (1982) (O’Connor, J., concurring). Whether we ever have occasion to decide if the six-year limitation period is unconstitutional remains to be seen.* The majority points out, however, *680other decisions have found two, three, five, six, and ten year limitation periods unconstitutional.
In this vein, I cannot agree to declare Casie’s case moot. I would hold, as the majority acknowledges, that Casie has a right to her own claim, through a guardian, conservator, or guardian ad litem, which claim is governed by the statute of limitations set forth in SDCL 15-2-22. See Carty v. Martin, 233 Kan. 7, 660 P.2d 540 (1983); Spada v. Pauley, 149 Mich.App. 196, 385 N.W.2d 746 (1986), certification for question declined, 425 Mich. 1203, 389 N.W.2d 85. Casie, who is now fifteen, sought the advice of an attorney and joined this suit by her own request. She chose her grandmother to act as guardian ad litem.
The better rule permits suit to be brought in the child’s name because the outcome of a paternity action “directly affects the status and financial claims of the child.” Homer H. Clark, Jr., Domestic Relations § 4.4, at 180 (2d ed. 1988). See also Lucey v. Torrence, 62 Misc.2d 714, 309 N.Y.S.2d 755 (1970); Lee R. Russ, Annotation, Right of Illegitimate Child to Maintain Action to Determine Paternity, 19 A.L.R.4th 1082 (1983). Casie has a right as does every child to know and be supported by both parents. See SDCL 25-7-6.1 and former SDCL 25-7-7 (repealed 1989). The first principle in paternity actions should never be forgotten:
It is the child’s interests that are at stake. The father’s duty of support is owed to the child, not to the mother. [Citation omitted.] Moreover, it is the child who has an interest in establishing a relationship to [the] father....
Pickett v. Brown, 462 U.S. 1, 16 n. 15, 103 S.Ct. 2199, 2208 n. 15, 76 L.Ed.2d 372 (1983). Indeed, the Washington Supreme Court has declared that a child has a constitutional right to be made a party in these types of cases. State v. Santos, 104 Wash.2d 142, 702 P.2d 1179 (1985).
Bakeburg argues that adding Casie to this suit was a “tactic” to “circumvent” the two year statute of limitations and avoid this Court’s holdings in State of Minnesota, ex rel. Hove v. Doese, 501 N.W.2d 366 (S.D.1993), and State of South Dakota, ex rel. Dotson v. Serr, 506 N.W.2d 421 (S.D.1993). Those cases dealt with the rights of a putative father as against the state and the mother. Now we focus on the rights of a child. Even if the statute of limitations in paternity actions bars an action brought by the mother or the state,
it does not bar an action by or on behalf of the child.... Here, the Social Services Department, the People, or any other interested person is free to request the appointment of a guardian ad litem for the minor child; and the child, or the guardian on behalf of the child, can bring the’ action even though [a statute of limitations] has expired ...
People In Interest of T.L.H. v. F.P.V., 701 P.2d 87, 88-89 (Colo.App.1984). Accord Nettles v. Beckley, 32 Wash.App. 606, 648 P.2d 508 (1982); Doak v. Milbauer, 216 Neb. 331, 343 N.W.2d 751 (1984); Huss v. DeMott, 215 Kan. 450, 524 P.2d 743 (1974); Perez v. Singh, 21 Cal.App.3d 870, 97 Cal.Rptr. 920 (1971); Sandifer v. Womack, 230 So.2d 212 (Miss.1970); see also Weber v. Anderson, 269 N.W.2d 892 (Minn.1978).
By allowing Casie to maintain her case we uphold a child’s independent right to identify and be supported by her father, and more— we encourage the opportunity for her to know her siblings, to join an extended family, and to claim her heritage. Many other jurisdictions recognize this important child’s right. South Dakota’s children deserve no less.

 The South Dakota Legislature enacted an eighteen year statute of limitations for paternity cases in 1986. 1986 S.D.Sess.L. ch. 218 § 57.