Greer ex rel. Farbo v. Greer
Court of Appeals of Kansas
324 P.3d 310 (Kan. App. 2014)
During a separation from her husband Jack, Dana Greer (defendant) had a relationship with John Farbo (plaintiff) before reconciling with Jack; she later gave birth to a daughter, Emily, and postnatal genetic testing confirmed John, not Jack, was Emily's biological father. John filed a paternity action, and the trial court held a hearing under prior precedent requiring assessment of the child's best interests before considering genetic-test results in a paternity dispute, at which John testified he had seen Emily roughly 22 times, bonded with her, and provided financial support, while Dana didn't dispute this but noted Jack had also formed a parental bond with Emily; the trial court dismissed the paternity action as not in Emily's best interests given her existing bond with Jack, and John appealed.
Whether a trial court, faced with statutory presumptions favoring both the mother's husband and a man whose paternity is already established by prior genetic testing exceeding 97 percent probability, may dismiss a paternity action without weighing the competing presumptions and the child's best interests.