Court Opinion

ID: 9735797
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:31:09.265202+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:01.620168
License: Public Domain

OLSZEWSKI, Judge,
concurring:
I concur in my esteemed colleague’s conclusion that summary judgment is inappropriate in this case even if both Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) and Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) tests indicate that the putative father is, in all likelihood, the biological father of the child. I write separately to make the following observation.
It seems to me that the majority is somewhat conclusory in its assertion that “the factfinder (be it jury or judge) [has] it within its prerogative to hold for the putative father/defendant ... regardless of the introduction of one or multiple blood tests (be they of the H.L.A. or D.N.A. variety) establishing a *57899.99% probability of paternity, if the other facts are supportive of such a verdict.” Majority opinion at 575 (emphasis omitted). This statement is premised on the proposition that HLA tests are not conclusive of paternity. Smith v. Shaffer, 511 Pa. 421, 515 A.2d 527 (1986); Tyler v. King, 344 Pa.Super. 78. 496 A.2d 16 (1985). Although I cannot dispute that HLA tests alone cannot deprive the jury of its power to decide paternity, it should not follow ipso facto that a DNA test which puts a putative father’s probability of fatherhood over 99.99% should be treated identically.
Our Court, not to mention legion others, has recognized that DNA tests are far more accurate than HLA tests.
Genetic tests [such as DNA] differ significantly from the blood cell antigen typing performed in the instant case. Genetic evidence provides direct evidence of the extent to which an alleged father and child actually share genetic material. From the results of genetic tests, adequately and accurately performed, it is possible to determine that a' particular man did in fact father a particular child.
An affirmative finding of paternity with the same certainty cannot be obtained from blood antigen tests, such as were performed in the instant case. Typing red and white blood cell antigens reveals the extent to which an alleged father and child share selected cellular, biomechanical properties. From the results of blood cell antigen tests it is sometimes possible to deduce, with a high degree of reliability, that an alleged father is not the biological father. It is never possible from the same tests, however, to deduce with the same certainty that a particular man fathered a particular child.
Stahli v. Wittman, 412 Pa.Super. 281, 603 A.2d 583, alloc. denied, 533 Pa. 601, 617 A.2d 1275 (1992). DNA tests have the potential for being highly accurate because each individual’s DNA is unique, and thus an acceptable “match” of DNA strands between a putative father and child can exclude a much larger population of potential fathers than does an HLA test. See E. Donald Shapiro, Stewart Refler, and Claudia Psome, The DNA Paternity Test: Legislating the Future *579Paternity Action, 7 Journal of Law and Health 1 (1993) (hereinafter “Paternity Test”); see also Mastromatteo v. Harkins, 419 Pa.Super. 329, 335-36, 615 A.2d 390, 393 (1992) (DNA paternity evidence can more accurately identify putative father as biological father and is thus not cumulative of HLA tests), alloc. denied, 535 Pa. 648, 633 A.2d 152 (1993).
Our legislature has also recognized that genetic testing is more accurate than HLA blood typing. While results of a DNA test are considered prima facie proof of parentage, 23 Pa.C.S.A. § 4343(c)(2), the same is not true of HLA tests. As we stated in Stahli:
Blood cell typing provides some evidence from which a factfinder may make an affirmative finding of paternity. However, the result is not prima facie evidence of paternity. Before the result of a blood test becomes probative of affirmative paternity, the trier of fact must be able to conclude that the mother and alleged father have engaged in the reproductive act at the relevant time.
Stahli, supra at 288, 603 A.2d at 586. Thus, since DNA by law is accorded more evidentiary weight than HLA, it would seem that DNA is not simply another “blood test” which under Smith v. Shaffer and Tyler v. King is just part of the evidence of paternity.1
Indeed, one court has determined that when DNA testing proves with over a 99.99% degree of probability that the putative father is the biological father, a trial is unnecessary. In Debra L. v. William J., 191 A.D.2d 558, 559, 594 N.Y.S.2d 810, 811 (1993), DNA and HLA tests resulted in a 99.99 + % probability that the putative father was the biological father. The trial court accepted father’s testimony that he did not *580have intercourse with mother, and found for father. The appellate court reversed, stating that
in view of his prior sexual contact with the mother, and his physical access to her ..., the unchallenged and overwhelming proof of paternity contained in the HLA and DNA test results cause his denials to pale to the point of transparency and are simply not credible. [Father] should not be able to rely solely on a courtroom performance which consists of nothing more than bald denials to defeat objective scientific proof which has identified him as the father to a virtual certainty.
Id. at 559, 594 N.Y.S.2d at 811.
Although it is tempting to join the New York courts and hold that the DNA tests can be conclusive, I cannot yet go so far. In Commonwealth v. Crews, 536 Pa. 508, 640 A.2d 395 (1994), our Supreme Court questioned the validity of the theory which positively identifies a strand of DNA with a particular individual. For example, a positive identification is determined by the statistical probability of a coincidental match within a random population. The scientific community has yet to agree, however, on how the “random” population should actually be defined — certain genetic traits can appear with greater frequency depending on, among many other factors, the ethnic, geographic, and religious makeup of the chosen population.2 The Supreme Court thus held, under the relevancy standard for scientific evidence, that an expert can only opine that the DNA tests were performed and that it was “more likely than not” that DNA extracted from blood found at the crime scene could be identified with the defendant. Id. at 522-24, 640 A.2d at 402. It remains to be seen what effect Crews will have on a civil paternity suit, but suffice it to say that in Pennsylvania, our courts, along with the scientific community, are still grappling with the certainty of interpreting DNA test results. It would seem that taking the case away from the jury, therefore, is an unwise step.
*581My review of this case thus leaves me with the impression that DNA tests, when performed under the proper conditions, can be highly accurate and leave little or no doubt as to who actually fathered a particular child. But so long as the tests leave room for human error, the putative father should be given the opportunity to challenge the process by which the tests were conducted at trial. Moreover, until the statistical interpretation of the DNA results attains at least general acceptance within the scientific community, the putative father should be able to question the basis for an expert’s extrapolation. If these very probative results are to be given presumptive or conclusive weight — and that time may come soon — I believe that the legislature is the proper body to undertake that mission.
I concur.

. The authors of Paternity Test argue that when a DNA test results in a possibility of paternity of at least 99.99%, which is the case here, a presumption that the putative father is the biological father should arise, rebuttable "only by clear and convincing evidence that the putative father was totally incapable of fathering the child, or that the putative father has an identical twin, or that the mother has engaged in multiple sexual relations during the time of conception." Id. at-. While our legislature has not, of course, adopted such a provision, it would surely be useful in a case such as this, where the DNA test results are overwhelming and the father’s defense is tenuous.

. For a very lucid discussion of the issue, see William C. Thompson, "DNA Evidence in Criminal Law: New Developments,” Trial (August, 1994).