People ex rel. JAU v. RLC, No. 01SC530.

• Decision Date: 28 May 2002
• Docket Number: No. 01SC530.
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, in the Interest of J.A.U., a child, Petitioner. v. R.L.C., Respondent.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

47 P.3d 327

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, in the Interest of J.A.U., a child, Petitioner. v. R.L.C., Respondent.

No. 01SC530.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

May 28, 2002.

William A. Tuthill, III, Acting Jefferson County Attorney, Ingrid Holmes, Assistant County Attorney, Kathleen Curley, Assistant County Attorney, Golden, Colorado, Attorneys for Petitioner.

No Appearance by or on behalf of Respondent.

Justice BENDER delivered the Opinion of the Court.

I. INTRODUCTION

This case requires us to decide whether a man, R.L.C., who has previously admitted paternity and been adjudicated the father of a child may, eleven years after the judgment has entered, obtain genetic tests that he believes will assist him in challenging that judgment of paternity. We conclude that he may not.

The trial court denied R.L.C.'s motion for genetic tests, reasoning that Colorado's statutory scheme does not provide for genetic tests after a final judgment of paternity has entered. The court of appeals reversed in In re J.A.U., 33 P.3d 1237, 1238-39 (Colo.App. 2001), holding that: (1) Colorado statute mandates that genetic tests be conducted upon the motion of the court or any interested party; (2) R.L.C.'s motion for genetic testing essentially alleged that the judgment of paternity was based on a mistake of material fact and thus placed the original judgment of paternity at issue; and (3) that there exists no time limit to when a challenge to a legal determination of paternity may be brought pursuant to section 19-4-105(2)(c), 6 C.R.S. (2001).

With this case, we announce two holdings. First, we hold that a challenge to a paternity judgment on the basis of material mistake of fact, pursuant to section 19-4-105(2)(c), must be brought within the six-month time limit of Colorado Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b). In this case, assuming that R.L.C.'s motion alleges that the original judgment was based on a mistake of material fact and that this allegation is sufficient to constitute a motion to vacate the judgment pursuant to C.R.C.P. 60(b), R.L.C.'s motion was not brought within relevant time limits and therefore must be denied.

Second, we hold that section 19-4-112, 6 C.R.S. (2001), the provision of the Children's Code governing genetic testing during paternity adjudications, does not provide for such testing after a legal judgment of paternity has entered. We base our holding on both the language of the statute and the State's interest in safeguarding the welfare of children.

Hence, we reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and remand this case to it for return to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

II. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW

L.E.R. and R.L.C., both Colorado residents, were involved in an intimate relationship during late 1987 and early 1988. L.E.R. became pregnant. In September of 1988, before the child was born, L.E.R. sought an adjudication of paternity and a child support order.

R.L.C., appearing pro se, stipulated to paternity at a hearing held in the Jefferson County District Court in October of 1988. R.L.C.'s acknowledgment of his relationship to the child occurred without any request for blood tests, though he was entitled to demand such tests under Colorado law.

The child, J.A.U., was born in November of 1988. Two months later, the trial court entered a judgment of paternity and ordered R.L.C. to pay child support.

R.L.C. never met J.A.U. However, approximately eleven years after the judgment of paternity was entered, L.E.R. sent J.A.U.'s picture to R.L.C. He examined this picture and began to suspect that he was not the biological father of J.A.U.

He, then, eleven years and five months after the judgment entered, in May of 2000, filed a motion for genetic testing, stating that he "desires the certainty of genetic testing" because:

In viewing the photograph [of J.A.U.], Respondent noticed several dissimilarities in facial features which has caused Respondent to seriously doubt his paternity in this case. Respondent now believes his decision to admit paternity was based upon an erroneous assumption on his part, and that he, in fact, is not the father of the minor child.

R.L.C.'s request was opposed by the Jefferson County Department of Social Services, who had standing because of its role as the child support enforcement authority.

The trial court denied R.L.C.'s motion, reasoning that section 19-4-112, which governs genetic testing in paternity cases, requires such testing only when paternity is at issue. Because paternity had already been litigated and finally adjudicated in this case, and because R.L.C. had not attacked that judgment, the trial court concluded that "under the circumstances of this case the law does not provide for or permit genetic testing."

The court of appeals reversed in a published opinion, relying on its construction of two provisions of the Colorado's Children's Code. In re J.A.U., 33 P.3d at 1238-39. First, the court noted that the language of section 19-4-112, which governs genetic testing in paternity cases, makes such tests mandatory upon the motion of the court or any interested party. Id. at 1238.

Next, presumably because it would be meaningless to permit post-adjudication genetic tests if the results of such tests could not be used to challenge existing judgments, the court went on to consider whether R.L.C. could challenge the paternity judgment involved in this case.¹ The court turned to section 19-4-105(2)(c), which permits challenges to judgments of paternity on the basis of fraud, duress, or mistake of material fact. Id. This statute does not specify a time limit within which such challenges must be brought. From this, the court of appeals reasoned that no time limit applies when an adjudicated father wishes to challenge a judgment on the basis of one of those three grounds. Id. Implicit in the court of appeals' holding was the conclusion that the time limits of C.R.C.P. 60(b), which governs motions to amend or vacate civil judgments, do not apply to paternity judgments.

Because of the court's interpretation of R.L.C.'s motion for genetic testing, which it read to allege that the judgment was based on a material mistake of fact, the court concluded that the motion placed the original judgment at issue and entitled R.L.C. to the genetic tests that he sought. Id. at 1239.

We granted certiorari to resolve the questions of: (1) whether the time limits of C.R.C.P. 60(b) apply when a legal finding of paternity is challenged on the basis of mistake of material fact; and (2) whether section 19-4-112, the statute governing genetic testing in paternity cases, permits such tests to be performed even after a legal adjudication of paternity has been entered.²,³

III. ANALYSIS

R.L.C. argues that, because of the "clear legislative and judicial preference in favor of accurate determinations of biological parentage," he must be permitted to obtain DNA tests to determine whether he is the biological father of J.A.U. He suggests that Colorado's statutory scheme "contemplates placing the biological parentage of a child at issue [even] subsequent to an adjudication of paternity." We consider first whether the time limits of C.R.C.P. 60(b) are applicable to challenges to paternity judgments, before turning to the question of whether an adjudicated father is entitled to genetic tests to confirm his biological relationship to the child after the judgment of paternity has entered.⁴ We conclude that C.R.C.P. 60(b) does apply to challenges to paternity judgments on the basis of mistake and that Colorado statutes do not provide for post-adjudication genetic testing.

A. The Time Limits of C.R.C.P. 60(b) Apply to Challenges to Paternity Judgments on the Basis of Mistake

We begin our analysis by discussing the importance of finality of judgments, both to the legal system as a whole and to individual judicial determinations.

Once a final judgment has entered and the time for review has passed, the judgment is generally conclusive between the parties. See, e.g., E.J.R. v. Dist. Court, 892 P.2d 222, 226 (Colo.1995)

("We have long recognized that a definite public interest exists in the assured final adjudication of controversies and conclusiveness of judgments."). A court's power to modify or vacate a final judgment is limited, even if aspects of that final judgment are erroneous. See, e.g., People v. Caro, 753 P.2d 196, 200 (Colo.1988).

If judgments could easily be set aside, public confidence in the courts would be undermined. As judges and legal scholars have long recognized, protecting the finality of judgments promotes stability, certainty, and consistency in the law, and enhances the credibility of the judicial system:

That the formal pronouncements of legal tribunals upon causes submitted to them should enjoy every possible degree of finality and conclusiveness would seem to be a necessary predicate to the proper functioning of the courts themselves. To permit their decisions to be evaded or disregarded for insufficient cause or in modes not sanctioned by law would tend to disrupt the administration of justice and bring courts into disrepute. Public policy requires that. . . judgments, as solemn records upon which valuable rights rest, should not lightly be disturbed or overthrown.

1 A.C. Freeman, Freeman on Judgments § 305, at 602-03 (5th ed. 1925); see also, e.g., Davidson v. McClellan, 16 P.3d 233, 236-37 (Colo.2001)

; Knapp v. Knapp, 24 Ohio St.3d 141, 493 N.E.2d 1353, 1356 (1986) ("Finality requires that there be some end to every lawsuit, thus producing certainty in the law and public confidence in the system's ability to resolve disputes.").

Individual parties who rely on existing judgments could be irreparably damaged by subsequent modifications to those judgments. To protect the interests of those parties, we have recognized that there must ordinarily be an ultimate stopping point at which a judgment is considered...