Pickett v. Brown

• Decision Date: 30 August 1982
• Citation: 638 S.W.2d 369
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court
• Parties: Frances Annette PICKETT, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Braxton BROWN, Defendant-Appellant, William M. Leech, Jr., Intervenor-Appellant.

Page 369

638 S.W.2d 369

Frances Annette PICKETT, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Braxton BROWN, Defendant-Appellant William M. Leech, Jr., Intervenor-Appellant.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

Aug. 30, 1982.

James R. McGarrh, Jr., Memphis, for defendant-appellant.

Lee Breckenridge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Nashville, for intervenor-appellant.

Harold W. Horne, Memphis, for plaintiff-appellee.

OPINION

DROWOTA, Justice.

This appeal seeks to uphold the constitutionality of the two-year statute of limitations upon an action to establish paternity, found in TCA § 36-224(2). ¹ The action was brought in May, 1978, to establish the paternity and obtain an order for support of a child born in November, 1968. The defendant argued that since the action was brought more than two years after the child's birth, and he had never acknowledged the child in writing or by furnishing support, the action was barred. The plaintiff mother filed a motion challenging the constitutionality of the section. She sought to amend her petition so as to bring it in the name of the child.

Plaintiff's grounds for urging unconstitutionality were: (1) that the two-year period denied her and her son equal protection of the law under the federal and state constitutions; (2) that it amounted to cruel and unusual punishment (not seriously pressed by plaintiff); and (3) that it deprived the child of due process of law in cutting off his rights before he was old enough to exercise them. Her argument was basically that children born out of wedlock were denied substantial benefits accorded to other children, since children born in wedlock may sue their fathers for support throughout their minority.

The Attorney General was allowed to intervene, since constitutionality was in issue. He argued that plaintiff had no standing to challenge the constitutionality of the exception for public charges, but that in any event, such exception was constitutional as an extension of the sovereignty of the state and because there was a rational basis for making this exception. Further, the general two-year period was constitutional because it was not a limitation upon illegitimates' right to support, which was equal to that of legitimate children. Rather, the limitation was upon establishing paternity, and was justified by the state's interest in preventing litigation of stale or spurious claims. The defendant separately argued that the statute merely limited "the time in which a mother who is able to support her child may seek reimbursement from the alleged father," and the time in which the state may seek reimbursement.

The juvenile court allowed the child to be added as a plaintiff, and held the two-year portion of the statute unconstitutional. The effect is to allow an action to be brought throughout the child's minority. The court reasoned that an illegitimate child has a right, continuing throughout minority, to support from his father. The right is enforced by an action brought under TCA § 36-222. However, such an action must, in general, be brought within two years of the child's birth, while no such limitation is imposed upon a child born in wedlock. The result is that the Legislature has treated illegitimate children differently than legitimate children. Additionally, an illegitimate child's right to support may be cut off by his mother's failure to act, with no fault on the part of the child.

The trial court also ruled that the two-year period put two state interests--the welfare of its children and preventing stale claims--in conflict. The court held that the stale claim reasoning failed because the state or any person may sue during eighteen years, when the child becomes a public charge. The court also found discrimination between children born out of wedlock, some of whom are public charges and some of whom are supported privately; even if the mother did support the child, this did not terminate the father's equal obligation to support.

The court allowed an interlocutory appeal by certifying that the constitutionality of TCA § 36-224(2) was the sole determinative question of law in the proceedings. TRAP 9, TCA § 16-408.

In ruling on the equal protection challenge to the statute, we begin our discussion with Mills v. Habluetzel, --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. 1549, 71 L.Ed.2d 770 (1982). ² This case held unconstitutional a Texas statute, § 13.01 of Chapter 13, Title 2 of the Texas Family Code:

A suit to establish the parent-child relationship between a child who is not the legitimate child of a man and the child's natural father by proof of paternity must be brought before the child is one year old, or the suit is barred.

This statute was challenged on equal protection and due process grounds. Upholding the equal protection challenge, the Court did not discuss the due process issue.

The Texas Family Code, governing determinations of paternity and entitling illegitimate children to seek such a determination and establish a paternal duty of support, was Texas' response to the Court's earlier opinion in Gomez v. Perez, 409 U.S. 535, 93 S.Ct. 872, 35 L.Ed.2d 56 (1973). Before Gomez, illegitimates in Texas had had no judicially enforceable right to support from the natural father. As the Court stated in Gomez,

... a State may not invidiously discriminate against illegitimate children by denying them substantial benefits accorded children generally. We therefore hold that once a State posits a judicially enforceable right on behalf of children to needed support from their natural fathers there is no constitutionally sufficient justification for denying such an essential right to a child simply because its natural father has not married its mother.

Id. at 538, 93 S.Ct. at 875, 35 L.Ed.2d at 60.

Thus, in Mills, the Court had to determine whether it was constitutional for Texas to grant a right to legitimation and support, but then place a one-year statute of limitations upon the bringing of the action. The Court held that this scheme was unconstitutional. "It would hardly satisfy the demands of equal protection and the holding of Gomez to remove an 'impenetrable barrier' to support, only to replace it with an opportunity so truncated that few could utilize it effectively." --- U.S. at ----, 102 S.Ct. at 1553. Although Texas law permitted the paternity action to be brought by any person with an interest in the child, the mother would usually be the person who would sue. For her, there would be such obstacles to bringing a suit within a year that she would effectively be denied the opportunity to sue. The hindrances listed by the Court included financial difficulties, continuing affection for the father, shame and embarrassment, and confusion. Since any suit had to be brought within a year, such time was not long enough for the state, once a claim should be assigned to it, to take steps to sue.

The Court also held that one year was "not substantially related to the State's interest in avoiding the prosecution of stale or fraudulent claims." Id. at ----, 102 S.Ct. at 1555. Problems of proof do not "justify a period of limitation which so restricts those rights as effectively to extinguish them." Id.

Considering this holding, we look at other language in the Court's opinion which would cast light upon a two-year limitation:

The fact that Texas must provide illegitimate children with a bona fide opportunity to obtain paternal support does not mean, however, that it must adopt procedures for illegitimate children that are coterminous with those accorded legitimate children. Paternal support suits on behalf of illegitimate children contain an element that such suits for legitimate children do not contain: proof of paternity. Such proof is often sketchy and strongly contested, frequently turning upon conflicting testimony from only two witnesses. Indeed, the problems of proving paternity have been recognized repeatedly by this Court. Parham v. Hughes, 441 U.S. 347, 357, 361 [99 S.Ct 1742, 1748-1749, 60 L.Ed.2d 269] (1979); Lalli v. Lalli, 439 U.S. 259, 269 [99 S.Ct. 518, 525, 58 L.Ed.2d 503] (1978); Trimble v. Gordon, 430 U.S. 762, 772 [97 S.Ct. 1459, 1466, 52 L.Ed.2d 31] (1977); Gomez v. Perez, [409 U.S.] at 538 [93 S.Ct. at 875].

Therefore, in support suits by illegitimate children more than in support suits by legitimate children, the State has an interest in preventing the prosecution of stale or fraudulent claims, and may impose greater restrictions on the former than it imposes on the latter. Such restrictions will survive equal protection scrutiny to the extent they are substantially related to a legitimate state interest. See Lalli v. Lalli, supra, [439 U.S. at 265, ; Trimble v. Gordon, supra [430 U.S.] at 767 [97 S.Ct. at 1463]; Mathews v. Lucas, 427 U.S. 495, 510 [96 S.Ct. 2755, 2764, 49 L.Ed.2d 651] (1976). The State's interest in avoiding the litigation of stale or fraudulent claims will justify those periods of limitation that are sufficiently long to present a real threat of loss or diminution of evidence, or an increased vulnerability to fraudulent claims.

The equal protection analysis ..., therefore, focuses on two related requirements. First, the period for obtaining support ... to illegitimate children must be sufficiently long in duration to present a reasonable opportunity for those with an interest in such children to assert claims on their behalf. Second, any time limitation placed on that opportunity must be substantially related to the State's interest in avoiding the litigation of stale or fraudulent claims.

Id. at ---- - ----, 102 S.Ct. at 1553-1554, 1555 (emphasis added).

During the pendency of the Mills case, the Texas Legislature increased the limitation period from one to four years. Thus, five Justices joined in a separate opinion to specify that by disapproving of a one-year statute, the Court did not wish to imply approval of a period longer than one year. We take this to mean simply that the Court does not wish to prejudge any...