Child Support Enforcement - Sarpy County Nebraska

State v. Cummings, 2 Neb. App. 820, 515 N.W.2d 680 (1994)
Plaintiffs are entitled to a default judgment without offering evidence in support of
the allegations of their petition, except allegations of value and amount of
damage. Weir v. Woodruff, 107 Neb. 585, 186 N.W. 988 (1922)
State on behalf of L.L.B. v. Hill, 268 Neb. 355, 682 NW2d 709 (2004)
This case involves the disestablishment of paternity some 5 years after the default order
was entered. No “replacement father” was involved. The state did not object to the
disestablishment after DNA tests came back showing the legal father to not be the
biological dad. The state appealed the sole issue of the district court’s vacation of child
support arrears. The supreme court reversed the vacation on equitable grounds. Query:
does this case open the door to legal fathers challenging existing paternity orders years
later?
Judgments: Equity: Time. A litigant seeking the vacation or modification of a
prior judgment after term may take one of two routes. The litigant may proceed
either under Neb. Rev. Stat. §25-2001 (Cum. Supp. 2002) or under the district
court’s independent equity jurisdiction.
To be entitled to equitable relief from a judgment, a party must show that the
situation is not due to his or her fault, neglect, or carelessness.
Dissolution and Related
Alicia C. v. Jeremy C., 283 Neb. 340, ___ N.W.2d ___ (February 2012)
Under Nebraska common law, later embodied in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 42-377 (Reissue
2008), legitimacy of children born during wedlock is presumed, and this presumption
may be rebutted only by clear, satisfactory, and convincing evidence.
When the parties fail to submit evidence at the dissolution proceeding rebutting the
presumption of paternity, the dissolution court can find paternity based on the
presumption alone.
[A]ny dissolution decree which orders child support implicitly makes a final
determination of paternity.
A dissolution decree that orders child support is res judicata on the issue of
paternity.
[S]tatutes (allowing for the disestablishment of paternity) have largely been in
response to a “disestablishment movement” which began after high profile cases in
which men felt defrauded by the child support system which forced them to support
children they were not genetically related to.
Rev. Stat. § 43-1412.01 (Reissue 2008) overrides res judicata principles and allows,
in limited circumstances, an adjudicated father to disestablish a prior, final paternity
determination based on genetic evidence that the adjudicated father is not the
biological father.
§ 43-1412.01 applies to paternity determinations both when the child is born into a
marriage as well as when the child is born to unmarried parents.
In enacting a statute, the Legislature must be presumed to have knowledge of all
previous legislation upon the subject.
If the language of a statute is clear, the words of such statute are the end of any
judicial inquiry regarding its meaning.
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