Maryland’s highest court this month overturned a lower court’s ruling that a man should be forced to continue paying child support even though paternity tests established that he was not the father of the child in question.
In 1993 Michele Gunter gave birth to a child and told Nicholas Walter that he was the father since she had not had sexual intercourse with any other men in the previous year. A judge ordered Walter to pay child support, to which Walter agreed.
Walter, however, had a series of work-related accidents and was perennially behind in his child-support payments. In March 2000, Walter asked a judge to modify the payment award since injuries sustained in an accident made it impossible for him to perform his job as a cab driver. He also asked for genetic testing to establish whether or not he was the after of the child.
The paternity test established that Walter was not the father of the child, and he asked the court to absolve him of the unpaid child support as well as order the mother to reimburse him for the money he had provided.
Maryland Circuit Judge James C. Cawood Jr. ruled in 2001 that Walter was not entitled to reimbursement of child support he had paid and must pay the unpaid amounts as well.
Walter appealed and Maryland’s high court ruled in a 4-3 decision that since he is not the biological father, he is not responsible for the past due child support.
In the majority opinion, judge Lynne A. Battaglia wrote that, “Without paternity, there is no legal duty; without a legal duty, there can be no financial obligation.”
Source:
Court frees man from child-support order. Arlo Wagner, The Washington Times, January 20, 2002.