FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE BY AND ON BEHALF OF MARSHA ANTOINETTE HAYE, PETITIONER,
v.
CARLTON HASANI KERR, RESPONDENT
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The Florida Department of Revenue seeks certiorari review of an order requiring paternity testing in a child support proceeding. The court quashes the paternity testing order, holding that it departed from the essential requirements of law because paternity was not placed in controversy by the father and no good cause was shown for testing, even though the mother requested it.
The court holds that the order for paternity testing must be quashed because it departs from the essential requirements of law. Paternity testing cannot be ordered absent a dispute over paternity by the father or a showing of good cause, regardless of whether the mother requests it.
[1] Paternity testing may not be ordered when the issue of paternity has not been placed in controversy by the father and good cause has not been shown.
[2] Harm resulting from a child submitting to paternity testing cannot be remedied on appeal, thus providing jurisdiction for review of an order compelling such testing.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“the order in this case departs from the essential requirements of law because the issue of paternity was not placed in controversy by the father and good cause was not shown for paternity testing”
States the core legal principle that paternity testing orders require either a paternity dispute by the father or good cause
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe respondent signed the child's birth certificate, admitted he was the child's father, and stated he was not requesting DNA testing. The child's mot…
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The Florida Department of Revenue (DOR) petitions for a 'writ of certiorari to review an order directing the mother, the father, and’the child to submit to paternity testing. The order was entered in a proceeding to establish Respondent’s child support obligation and was based on a report entered by the same child support hearing officer who recommended the paternity testing order that we quashed today in Florida Department of Revenue ex rel. Corbitt v. Alletag, Case No. 1D14-3011, 2015 WL 509580 (Feb. 9, 2015). Like the order in that case, the order in this case departs from the essential requirements of law because the issue of paternity was not placed in controversy by the father and good cause was not shown for paternity testing. And, even though it was the mother who requested paternity testing in this case,1,2 we have jurisdiction to review the order because the harm re-suiting from the child having to submit to paternity testing cannot be remedied on appeal. Accordingly, as we did in Alletag and the cases cited therein, we grant the petition for a writ of certiorari and quash the trial court’s order requiring the parties to submit to paternity testing.
PETITION GRANTED; ORDER QUASHED.
BENTON, WETHERELL, and SWANSON, JJ., concur.