Reese v. Muret
Supreme Court of Kansas
150 P.3d 309 (2007)
Sam Waldschmidt and Deloris Hibbs married and had a daughter, Heather (plaintiff), whose birth certificate listed Sam as her father; Sam treated Heather as his own child. After Sam and Deloris divorced, Sam had little contact with Heather, remarried Sandra (defendant), and later died by suicide. William Muret (defendant) was named administrator of Sam's estate. Sandra sought genetic testing to determine whether Heather was Sam's biological daughter, both in the probate case and after Heather filed a paternity action under the Kansas Parentage Act claiming Sam as her presumptive father. The trial court denied testing in both cases, following precedent requiring a hearing on the child's best interests before ordering testing, and found testing was not in Heather's best interests.
Whether, under the Kansas Parentage Act, paternity is determined by the presumption that a husband is the father of a child born during the marriage when genetic testing is not in the child's best interests.