A Lincoln County man who asked for a paternity test after being ordered to pay back child support was not entitled to the test, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
Franklin Perry failed to request the test before the child turned 18, the age at which a non-custodian parent’s obligation to pay support ends, Associate Justice Jim Gunter said in the ruling.
The ruling reversed an order from Circuit Judge Leon N. Jamison of Jefferson County.
A paternity complaint was filed against Perry on April 11, 2004, alleging he was the father of a child born in 1987, and a judgment was entered against Perry on Jan. 26, 1995, ordering him to pay $40 per week support.
That figure reflected $32.50 for regular support, with the remaining $7.50 going to retroactive support.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The court ruling said Perry apparently didn’t comply with the order, because on May 13, 2009, the Arkansas Office of Child Support Enforcement asked for a judgment of $14,195.72 in back support from Perry, who denied owing the money.
On June 11, 2009, Perry asked for a paternity test, and the state agency argued that because the child turned 18 in 2005, Perry’s request was outside the time limit allowed under state law.
After a hearing on Feb. 10, 2010, Jamison ruled that Perry was entitled to be tested, and after several appeals back and forth, the state Supreme Court agreed to hear the case because it involved an interpretation of a state statute.
Child Support Enforcement argued that while there was no question that the child had reached 18 and Perry’s obligation to pay current support had ended, his right to ask for a paternity test had also ended and that the law covered only current support, not money that was previously owed.
Perry argued that he was entitled to the test because of the plain language of the law, which does not state that the entitlement to the test exists only for a father paying current support, nor does it state that the child must be a minor to be tested.
The Supreme Court sent the case back to Jamison to conduct a hearing on the state’s demand for back child support from Perry.