Summary
The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed a chancery court judgment holding Gerald W. McIntosh in contempt for failing to pay child support. The court upheld the denial of additional paternity testing because McIntosh provided no expert evidence challenging the original test and sought testing approximately nine years after the results were issued. The court also concluded that McIntosh failed to provide clear and convincing evidence establishing an inability to pay.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the chancery court abused its discretion by denying McIntosh's request for additional paternity testing.
- Whether the chancery court erred by holding McIntosh in contempt for failing to pay child support when he claimed inability to pay.
Holdings
- The chancery court properly denied McIntosh's request for additional paternity testing because he presented no expert testimony establishing cause to question the original genetic testing and his challenge was made approximately nine years after the statutory thirty-day period.
- The chancery court properly held McIntosh in contempt because DHS established a prima facie case by proving nonpayment, and McIntosh failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that he was unable to pay or had another valid defense.
Key quotations
“If parties could simply set aside genetic tests with no evidence tending to disprove their validity, then paternity would never be resolved.” (¶7)
“At this point, the burden shifts to the paying party to show an inability to pay or other defense; this proof must be clear and convincing and rise above a simple state of doubtfulness.” (¶11)
““Willful refusal to support one's children is not the same as inability to pay.”” (¶14)
Factual background
McIntosh was adjudicated the father of Deshun McDade after a certified genetic test reported a 99.96% probability of paternity. He later failed to pay the court-ordered $112 monthly child-support obligation and accumulated approximately $5,125 in arrears. Nearly nine years after the original test, he sought additional paternity testing without presenting expert testimony challenging the original test and asserted that a disability prevented him from paying, but he provided no medical records or other substantiating evidence.
Procedural history
The Mississippi Department of Human Services filed a paternity action in 1989, and the chancery court adjudicated McIntosh to be the child's father after genetic testing showed a 99.96% probability of paternity. In 1999, the court ordered McIntosh to pay $112 per month in child support. After he failed to make payments and accumulated approximately $5,125 in arrearages, the court denied his request for additional testing, found him in contempt, and ordered incarceration unless he paid $500 toward the arrearage within 30 days. The Supreme Court of Mississippi affirmed.