Wilson v. Montgomery

Summary

The Ohio Tenth District Court of Appeals affirmed the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas judgment granting Kelly Moore’s motion for relief from judgment and ordering genetic testing concerning the elder child. The court held that Ohio law provides a potential avenue to challenge a final acknowledgment of paternity under R.C. 3119.962 and that the genetic-testing order was not void. The court also upheld intervention despite Moore’s failure to attach a pleading as required by Civ.R. 24(C), construing the rule liberally in light of the parental rights at issue.

Holdings

1. The genetic-testing order was not void. R.C. 3119.962 provides an additional mechanism for obtaining relief from a final acknowledgment of paternity when genetic testing shows no probability that the acknowledged father is the child's natural father, and that mechanism is not subject to the one-year limitation applicable to an action under R.C. 3111.28.
2. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting intervention despite Moore's failure to attach a pleading, because his motion clearly stated the grounds and purpose for intervention.
3. Wilson properly raised the intervention-related assignments of error in the appeal from the later final judgment because an order granting intervention is not a final, appealable order.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial court's order requiring genetic testing was void because the acknowledged paternity could no longer be challenged under the time limit in R.C. 3111.28.
2. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by permitting intervention when Moore did not attach a pleading as required by Civ.R. 24(C).
3. Whether Moore's motion to intervene was substantively or temporally defective.
4. Whether the order granting intervention was appealable in the appeal from the later final judgment.

Disposition

affirmed