Court Opinion

ID: 9732794
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:35:47.537187+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:23:33.358170
License: Public Domain

TAMILIA, Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. The long and learned Opinion by the majority ignores the simple principle of established law that estoppel applies in cases such as this. The majority would introduce a variant of the discovery rule by alleging the legal father in this case, Mr. Kohler, may renounce paternity because the biological father is “A” instead of “B”. The estoppel doctrine protects both the intact family, which this was during and many years following the birth of the child, and the child, who is now without a legal father by pronouncement of this Court.
There are several means by which the law establishes paternity, irrespective of biological conception. Examples are *401adoption, acknowledgement, marriage to the mother and acceptance of the child, presumption of legitimacy by marriage during conception and, as here, by estoppel despite knowledge of inability to conceive and that the husband is not the father of the child. The majority introduces a new variant which destabilizes what has been determined by policy to be an area which should be protected. The trial court is correct in its decision and there is no statute or case law which justifies reversal.
The starting point of this case is presumption of legitimacy (now referred to as presumption that child born to a married woman is the child of the woman’s husband). John M. v. Paula T., 524 Pa. 306, 571 A.2d 1380 (1990), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 850, 111 S.Ct. 140, 112 L.Ed.2d 107 (1990). This presumption is rebuttable by showing non-access or inability on the part of the husband to conceive. Michael H. v. Gerald D., 491 U.S. 110, 109 S.Ct. 2333, 105 L.Ed.2d 91 (1989). However, as here, when the parties, at the time of conception, knew the husband could not be the father, rebutting criteria are not implicated and are irrelevant to the consideration of paternity as a legal matter. It has long been the law that when a husband is aware he is not the father of a child born during marriage, but takes on the role of father and remains in the marriage in that role, a later decision to reject his paternity will not be recognized by the courts and he is estopped from denying paternity. John M., supra, 524 Pa. at 306, 571 A.2d 1380. In other words, even if, in fact, the presumption is rebuttable for any reason, under principles wherein estoppel applies, the presumption may not be rebutted. A similar rule applies to a putative father who marries the mother and legitimatizes the child. Matter of Montenegro, 365 Pa.Super. 98, 528 A.2d 1381 (1987).
The results of a blood test proving the putative father not to be the biological father are not relevant because the husband is estopped from denying paternity. Christianson v. Ely, 390 Pa.Super. 398, 568 A.2d 961 (1990). In Seger v. Seger, 377 Pa.Super. 391, 547 A.2d 424 (1988), this Court held that a mother was estopped from denying the husband’s paternity, after separation, when she permitted him to maintain the child *402and assume parental duties during the period the family was intact. The law treats both parents equally when the issue is rebuttal evidence and estoppel thereof.
Two elements in Seger are similar to the present case. The parent assumed parental duties during the marriage and there was a rejection or repudiation of paternity by one of the parties upon separation. Also, in each case there was concealment of the true nature of the paternity. In Seger, we stated: “It has been stated in numerous cases that a father is es-topped from denying paternity by long delay in raising the issue at all (assuming he was aware of non-paternity) and by his acceptance and support of the child during that time.” Id. at 397, 547 A.2d at 427 (citations omitted). In Jones v. Trojak, 535 Pa. 95, 634 A.2d 201 (1993), our Supreme Court held the presumptive father will not be estopped from challenging paternity when he failed to accept the child as his own by holding it out as such and/or supporting the child. Estoppel does apply, however, when the father has accepted the child and treated him as his own and he may not, upon separation, reject paternity and demand a blood test to rebut the presumption. This view was adopted from Christianson v. Ely, 390 Pa.Super. 398, 568 A.2d 961 (1990), where this Court held that a mother could not force a putative father to submit to a blood test to rebut paternity of a child conceived and born while the mother was married to and living with the husband absent proof that the husband had denied paternity and refused responsibility from the time he was reasonably aware of non-paternity. In this case, the husband was absolutely aware of non-paternity from the time of pregnancy and only seven years later, after separation, did he reject responsibility. No clearer case for estoppel according to legal precedent can be established. The fact that the appellant became aware of the true identity of the alleged father is irrelevant to the issue of estoppel. It is knowledge of and acceptance of non-paternity that creates the estoppel; lack of knowledge as to the true identity of the putative father is irrelevant. Husband cannot choose when to repudiate his prior acceptance of paternity nor can he make such a repudiation upon a subsequent determina*403tion of the identity of the biological father. The doctrine of estoppel as to the issue of paternity cannot be so qualified as to give it questionable validity and applicability based on an unknown and immaterial variant. Should this exception be engrafted upon the principle of estoppel, it is not difficult to visualize other post-estoppel renunciations based on race or ethnic background of the biological father, possession of a genetic defect giving rise to subsequent illness and medical expenses, or any of a myriad of other subjectively conceived reasons. The essence of the doctrine is knowledge of non-paternity and acceptance of the status of parent-child relationship. After six years in which the family remained intact and the child was nurtured in an intact family setting with future benefits to the child to be derived from the continuing status, the knowledgeable adults now may not disturb that relationship to the possible detriment of the innocent child. This finding and that of Christianson, supra, 408 Pa.Super. at 269, 596 A.2d 851, follow in a consistent, straight line from Commonwealth ex rel. Goldman v. Goldman, 199 Pa.Super. 274, 184 A.2d 351 (1962) (estoppel applies to grant of blood test where child born during coverture is accepted by defendant as his own), and Commonwealth v. Weston, 201 Pa.Super. 554, 193 A.2d 782 (1963) (when a child is born during coverture and father has accepted the child prior to filing a petition for blood test, he should be refused a petition for blood test). The majority quotes at length from the cases involving estoppel and presumption of legitimacy but attempts to circumvent the public policy upon which those cases are based. The spurious issue of fraud as to the identity of the actual father of the child is not a factor which can undermine the policy decision that a child born in an intact family, with knowledge by the husband that the biological father is another person, followed by acceptance by the husband, must be deemed the legitimate child of that family. That policy decision is a statement that society values more highly the preservation of intact families and that children shall be legitimate than it does the privacy and other interests which might subsequently be alleged by the parents. The legislature established several means by which a child may be legitimatized, aside' from birth during coverture. Paternity may be acknowledged in writing and by filing a *404document with the Department of Health, pursuant to 23 Pa.C.S. § 5103, Acknowledgement and claim of paternity. More to the point, “paternity by estoppel” provisions have been codified by the General Assembly in 23 Pa.C.S. § 5102 as follows:
§ 5102. Children declared to be legitimate
(a) General rule. — All children shall be legitimate. irrespective of the marital status of their parents, and, in every case where children are born out of wedlock, they shall enjoy all the rights and privileges as if they had been born during the wedlock of their parents except as otherwise provided in Title 20 (relating to decedents, estates and fiduciaries).
(b) Determination of paternity. — For purposes of prescribing benefits to children born out of wedlock by, from and through the father, paternity shall be determined by any one of the following ways:
(1) If the parents of a child born out of wedlock have married each other.
(2) If, during the lifetime of the child, it is determined by clear and convincing evidence that the father openly holds out the child to be his and either receives the child into his home or provides support for the child.
(3) If there is clear and convincing evidence that the man was the father of the child, which may include a prior court determination of paternity.
(Emphasis added.)
There is absolutely no question that the child in this case was accepted and held out by appellant as his own, and without qualification obtains the statutory protection of legitimacy established by the legislature, pursuant to section 5102(b)(2). It is undeniable that public policy favors legitimacy and the actions of the parents, even if misguided, which fulfill the statutory requirements establishing the child’s legitimacy and the parents’ obligation may not later be repudiated because of a mistake of fact or even a misrepresentation that does not go to the essentials of the undertaking. Here, the *405essential ingredient was the assumption of the obligation of paternity with knowledge that the appellant was not and could not be the child’s parent. The child became the true beneficiary of this acceptance and the law imposes a continuing irrevocable obligation (short of termination of parental rights) on the parent assuming the obligation.
In John M., supra, 524 Pa. at 306, 571 A.2d 1380, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in reviewing the above statutory provisions, stated, in adopting language from Montenegro, supra, 365 Pa.Super. at 98, 528 A.2d 1381, “since the requirements of the law had been met to establish paternity, the father was estopped from denying paternity five years later.” John M., supra at 571 A.2d at 1387.
A fair reading of the cases establishing estoppel leads to the conclusion that the presumption must be rebutted at or near the time of the child’s birth. The concept of an intact family which the law seeks to protect is the family as it exists at the time of conception or birth of the child (not at time of separation), and if the presumption is not rebutted at that time or the duty is legally assumed at that time, estoppel applies. The father is estopped from rebutting the presumption for any reason, whether it be because of the father’s sterility, nonaccess, fraud as to identity of the biological father or any other proposed rationale. The presumption by reason of estoppel becomes irrebuttable even as to an alleged fraud as to identity of the true biological father. By its very nature, contested issues of paternity invariably involve secretiveness, denial, misrepresentation and fraud. To open the door to overcome the estoppel doctrine because of the kind of fraud alleged in this ease would be to destabilize the public policy so laboriously developed over centuries down to the present time. As a matter of law and public policy, this type of fraud is vitiated by the acknowledgement of paternal responsibility. The variables of human nature, emotion and relationship are such that it is impossible to say six or seven years after acceptance, and when the relationship had soured, what would have been the appellant’s reaction had he known the true identity of the biological father. With the wide range of activities engaged in today via artificial insemination, in vitro *406fertilization, surrogate parentage, and almost inconceivable matches resulting in children to parents who cannot conceive together, even this relationship might have been accepted by a husband who desired to preserve a marriage with a wife who desired to have a child which appellant could not produce. The state of confusion that exists in marital and nonmarital relationships in today’s society requires that the fullest protection possible be provided to the children created through these relationships.
I believe the trial court must be affirmed.