2021 Georgia Code
Title 19 - Domestic Relations
Chapter 7 - Parent and Child Relationship Generally
Article 3 - Determination of Paternity
§ 19-7-49. Final Order; Effect; Evidence of Costs

1. On a finding that the alleged father is the father of the child, the court shall issue an order designating the alleged father as the father of the child. The sole effect of the order shall be to establish the duty of the father to support the child.
2. On a finding that the alleged father is not the father of the child, the court shall issue an order declaring this finding.
3. The trier of fact shall receive without foundation or the need for third-party testimony evidence of costs of pregnancy, child birth, and genetic testing. The evidence so presented shall constitute prima-facie evidence of amounts incurred for such services or for testing on behalf of the child. The court may award such costs as part of its final decree.

(Code 1933, § 74-310, enacted by Ga. L. 1980, p. 1374, § 1; Ga. L. 1997, p. 1613, § 22.)

- Issuance or registration of new birth certificate upon order declaring paternity of child, §§ 31-10-12,31-10-14.

- For article commenting on the 1997 amendment of this Code section, see 14 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 121 (1997). For a note on the role of a judicial determination of paternity in the inheritance rights of illegitimate children in Georgia, see 16 Ga. L. Rev. 171 (1981).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Credibility of expert is question for jury.

- O.C.G.A. § 19-7-49 plainly requires the jury to determine whether the expert presenting the test results is credible. Until the jury makes the decision that the tests were properly conducted and that the expert presenting the results testified truthfully, the test results are not entitled to any greater deference than any other evidence of paternity. Howard v. Howard, 258 Ga. 846, 375 S.E.2d 852 (1989).

- In divorce action, the issue of parentage is to be decided by the jury, and the fact that a human leukocyte antigen typing test concluded that the alleged father could not be the biological father of the child was not conclusive on the question of parentage; thus, the jury decision finding paternity could not be overturned on appeal. Jackson v. Jackson, 253 Ga. 576, 322 S.E.2d 725 (1984).

When the jury was instructed in accordance with O.C.G.A. § 19-7-49(c), and there was at least some basis upon which the jurors could have discounted the results of the prior testing as being unreliable, the jurors were authorized to reject those test results and to rely instead on the other evidence tending to show that the defendant was the child's father. Williamson v. Ward, 192 Ga. App. 857, 386 S.E.2d 727 (1989).

- Ending a previously established duty to support or ordering a retroactive rescission of previously awarded child support may be in the best interest of the putative father who has proven his nonpaternity, but it is hardly in the best interest of the child. Thus, the issue of child support obligations that is conferred upon the trial court by O.C.G.A. § 19-7-51 would seemingly extend only to the case wherein paternity has been initially established pursuant to subsection (a) of O.C.G.A. § 19-7-49 not to the case wherein paternity has been disproven pursuant to subsection (b) of § 19-7-49. Department of Human Resources v. Morton, 204 Ga. App. 638, 420 S.E.2d 89 (1992).

Cited in Families First v. Gooden, 211 Ga. App. 272, 439 S.E.2d 34 (1993).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d.

- 41 Am. Jur. 2d, Illegitimate Children, § 81.

- 14 C.J.S., Children Out-of-Wedlock, § 116 et seq.

- Judgment in bastardy proceeding as conclusive of issues in subsequent bastardy proceeding, 37 A.L.R.2d 836.