Court Opinion

ID: 9704109
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:22:40.453625+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:15:35.288061
License: Public Domain

RATLIFF, Presiding Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the majority opinion that under the applicable Indiana statutes, the posthumously born illegitimate child was not entitled to participate in the action for wrongful death of the putative father. The majority has properly construed and applied those statutes. Further, I agree that there is no constitutional impediment which renders those statutes ineffectual. The result reached in this case, upon the facts of this case, and under pertinent Indiana law, is correct.
However, I have some concern with the majority’s reference to the problems created by stale claims of paternity, the difficulty of proving paternity, and the danger of spurious claims of paternity against the estate of a deceased putative father as justification for the statutes governing the rights of illegitimates to inherit and, consequently, to participate in wrongful death actions such as the one before us. While such concerns have indeed been expressed by our courts and are relevant historically to the discussion of the issue at hand, the continued reliance upon such matters seems antiquated and of questionable vitality in view of the state of modern scientific testings, recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and this court, and recent legislative enactments by our General Assembly. See, for example, Mills v. Habluetzel, (1982) 456 U.S. 91, 102 S.Ct. 1549, 71 L.Ed.2d 770 (declaring a Texas one-year statute of limitations in paternity actions unconstitutional); Matter of M.D.H., (1982) Ind.App., 437 N.E.2d 119 (transfer pending) (declaring former Indiana two-year statute of limitations in paternity actions unconstitutional); Little v. Streater, (1981) 452 U.S. 1, 101 S.Ct. 2202, 68 L.Ed.2d 627 (due process prevents an indigent defendant in a paternity action being denied blood grouping tests because of his inability to pay). Our opinion in Matter of M.D.H. and Justice O’Connor’s concurring opinion in Mills refer to scientific and legal articles concerning Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) tissue tests and their accuracy in establishing lack of paternity. Thus, the argument of difficulty of proof may well fall in the face of modern scientific knowledge. Our legislature has now extended the statute of limitations in paternity actions significantly. West’s A.I.C. § 31-6-6.1-6 (1982-83 Supp.). The child may now file such an action at *111any time before his twentieth birthday, and, if public assistance has been granted, the welfare department can file up to the fifth birthday of the child. In addition, posthumous claims have been recognized because the paternity action may be instituted within five months after the death of the alleged father. Id. Thus the arguments concerning stale claims and spurious claims against a deceased father unable to deny paternity lose their force when these statutes are considered.
However, since I view the majority’s comments concerning former legislative policy to have been offered for historical background and the decision here does not and need not rest upon those arguments which I now question, I concur.