Kiefer v. Touris
| Decision Date | 26 May 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 05-0651.,05-0651. |
| Citation | 197 S.W.3d 300 |
| Parties | Terry KIEFER and Kelly Jo Wood, Petitioners, v. Ioannis John TOURIS and Dennis G. Brewer, Jr. ex rel. A.K., a Minor, Respondents. |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
Brad M. LaMorgese, Cooper & Scully, P.C., Laurence A. DePlaza, Laurence A. DePlaza, P.C., Dallas, for petitioner Terry Kiefer.
Stephen W. Shoultz, McGready Lewis Richeson, Law Offices of Stephen W. Shoultz, Karen Blakely Turner, Ryan William Greene, Broome, Bobo & Greene, L.L.P., Dallas, for petitioner Kelly Jo Wood.
Ron Massingill, Peggy Lynn Pasquini, Peggy Pasquini, P.C., Dallas, Cherl Kay Harper Byles, Burleson, Richard R. Orsinger, McCurley, Orsinger, McCurley, Nelson & Downing L.L.P., San Antonio, for respondent Ioannis John Touris.
Dennis G. Brewer Jr., Irving, Georganna L. Simpson, Law Offices of Georganna L. Simpson, Dallas, for respondent Dennis G. Brewer, Jr. ex rel. A.K.
In this case we consider whether a judgment in a bill of review proceeding that sets aside a parentage adjudication, but does not make a new parentage adjudication, is an appealable judgment. We conclude that it is not.
Kelly Jo Wood married Terry Kiefer in 1995. The next year, while married to Kiefer, Wood began an affair with Ioannis John Touris. In 1998, Wood became pregnant with Touris's child, and A.K.1 was born later that year.2 Wood and Kiefer divorced in 2000. The divorce decree adjudicated Wood and Kiefer parents of A.K., naming them joint managing conservators. Kiefer was ordered to pay child support in the amount of $1,500 per month. Wood did not notify Touris of her divorce or of the parentage adjudication in the decree.
While still not disclosing her divorce or Kiefer's custody and support obligations, Wood sent Touris a proposed "separation agreement" to formally acknowledge their relationship and that A.K. was born of that relationship. The agreement further provided for Wood and Touris to be A.K.'s joint managing conservators, for Touris to pay child support of $800 per month for the first few years and then $1,600 per month starting in 2006, and for Touris to receive the dependency deduction for A.K. on his income tax return. Without signing the agreement, Touris began paying Wood child support for A.K.
In 2001, Wood and Touris filed an acknowledgment of paternity with the Bureau of Vital Statistics, naming Touris as A.K.'s father. Wood also caused A.K.'s birth certificate to be changed to reflect Touris as A.K.'s father. Touris then obtained a passport for A.K. with Touris as the child's last name.
In 2002, Touris filed a petition for voluntary paternity, asking to be formally adjudicated the father of A.K. DNA testing established to a 99.9% certainty that Touris is A.K.'s biological father.
After discovering Wood's divorce decree declaring Kiefer and Wood to be A.K.'s parents, Touris filed a bill of review to set aside the decree's parentage adjudication to clear the way for his voluntary paternity petition.3 An attorney ad litem, who was appointed to represent A.K.'s interests, intervened in the bill of review proceeding to also seek a new trial on parentage. The trial court granted the bill of review by summary judgment, setting aside the parentage adjudication in the divorce decree, but the court did not enter a new adjudication of A.K.'s parentage. Wood and Kiefer appealed.
Although the court of appeals affirmed ...
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