Summary 2008 WY 1

Summary of Decision issued January 8, 2008

Summaries are prepared by Law Librarians and are not official statements of the Wyoming Supreme Court.

Case Name: RK v. State

Citation: 2008 WY 1

Docket Number: S-07-0072

Appeal from the District Court of Natrona County, the Honorable David B. Park, Judge

Representing Appellant (Defendant): Larry R. Clapp and Scott J. Olheiser, Clapp & Associates, PC, Casper, Wyoming.

Representing Appellee (Plaintiff): Patrick J. Crank, Attorney General; Robin Sessions Cooley, Deputy Attorney General; Jill E. Kucera, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Ellen Rutledge, Assistant Attorney General.

Facts/Discussion: RK challenged the district court’s order establishing his parentage of MJ. In 1993, paternity Test 1 was performed. The results excluded RK as the father. In 1994, the court received a letter from the testing firm explaining an error had occurred and that the results of Test 2 could not exclude RK as the father. In 1999, RK submitted to Test 3 which results also showed him to be the father.
In this appeal, RK contested that the genetic testing statute in effect in 1992 required the district court to dismiss the suit on receipt of the Test 1 results. Next RK asserted that the evidence was irrelevant from Test 2 and 3 and that the district court applied the current statute concerning genetic testing rather than the one in effect in 1992 when the testing was commenced.
Dismissal After Test I: The Court reviewed the language of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 14-2-111(f) de novo. The Court stated that the cases RK relied upon, E.g., Le Page v. State of Wyo., Dep’t of Health and Maryland v. State did not establish that the plain language mandated dismissal, nor did it require the district court to dismiss paternity cases on its own initiative. Because the case was never dismissed the Court stated there was no reopening of the case and they declined to further discuss that claim.
Failure to Rebut Test 1: Whether evidence is relevant is a decision within the trial court’s decision. The Court reviewed the evidence and stated that it all fit the definition of relevant evidence that had a tendency to make the evidence of RK’s paternity more probable than it would be without the evidence.
Incorrect Statute Applied: The Court evaluates a district court’s admission of evidence under the abuse of discretion standard. To meet the standard of W.R.A.P. 9.04, RK must have shown that the outcome of his trial would have been more favorable had the error not occurred. The Court noted the differences between the current statute for refuting genetic tests and the one in effect in 1992. The Court stated the error was harmless because the proffered evidence was insufficient as a matter of law. The lab made clear that the error with Test 1 was not the test itself but that they had accidentally switched the samples with another trio of subjects. Test 1 was irrelevant to whether RK was MJ’s genetic father. Once Test 1 was removed from consideration, Test 2 and 3 remained which supported the conclusion that RK was MJ’s genetic father. The district court’s error in applying the current paternity statute was harmless.

Holding: The plain language of the statute did not mandate dismissal nor did it require the district court to dismiss the paternity suit. The evidence fit the definition of relevant evidence. The application by the district court of the incorrect statute was harmless error because the proffered evidence was insufficient as a matter of law.

Affirmed.

J. Burke delivered the decision.

Link: http://tinyurl.com/2zp8qk .

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