Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services v. Chambers, 84-1563
| Decision Date | 26 July 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 84-1563,84-1563 |
| Citation | 472 So.2d 1358,10 Fla. L. Weekly 1817 |
| Parties | 10 Fla. L. Weekly 1817 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES, Appellant, v. Jeffery CHAMBERS, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Geraldyne H. Carlton, Lakeland, for appellant.
No appearance for appellee.
The Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS) appeals a nonfinal order directing Jeffery Chambers and Grace Johnson to submit to blood tests for the purpose of determining the paternity of a child. We treat the appeal as a petition for writ of certiorari and grant the writ.
Pursuant to chapter 39, Florida Statutes (1983), a petition was filed in the Hillsborough County Circuit Court on July 6, 1978, requesting the court to adjudicate Reginald Chambers a dependent child. The child had been receiving public assistance from the state of Florida.
Several days later, Chambers signed an acknowledgment of paternity and agreed to have an order entered by the court requiring him to support the child. In addition to the acknowledgment, Chambers signed a stipulation with the Child Support Enforcement Division of HRS agreeing to pay $20.00 per week child support beginning on July 24, 1978. The court, thereafter, entered an order finding the child dependent and directing Chambers to pay the stipulated amount of support.
In 1984, Chambers filed a motion to vacate the order of support and acknowledgment of paternity. At the hearing on the motion, Grace Johnson, Reginald's mother, testified that Chambers may not be the father of the child because she "had dealings with another man" and because "Jeffery says he is sterile." Chambers testified that he could not have fathered the child as he was incarcerated at the time Grace Johnson became pregnant. Chambers further alleged that his mother informed him that he may be sterile due to a childhood disease.
The court scheduled a second hearing to allow an appearance by HRS. 1 No additional testimony was presented at the later hearing but HRS argued that the paternity matter was rendered res judicata by the 1978 proceedings. Nonetheless, the court granted Chambers' request for the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) blood tests and held in abeyance all child support until further order of the court.
We agree with HRS that the court departed from the essential requirements of law in ordering the blood tests. The paternity question was resolved six years ago by Chambers' acknowledgment of paternity and by the court's order awarding child support. As such, res judicata principles preclude Chambers from now attempting to relitigate the same issue. Johnson v. Johnson, 395 So.2d 640 (Fla. 2d DCA 1981). In Johnson,...
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