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460 So. 2d 1014

460 So.2d 1014

10 Fla.L.Weekly 92

Docket No. 84-1448.

Decker v. Hunter

Joan D. DECKER, Appellant, v. Dwayne M. HUNTER, Appellee.

District Court of Appeal of Florida

Decided December 26, 1984.

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 1984-12-26

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“The final judgment of dissolution of marriage is res judicata and, therefore, bars any redetermination of the paternity of the child.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including State Department of Health & Rehabilitative Services v. Robison

Relies on 343 So. 2d 945 - Smithwick v. Smithwick · 395 So. 2d 640 - Johnson v. Johnson · 431 So. 2d 257 - Parmer v. Parmer

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1984-12-26

How this case has been cited

Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently November 2005

13 state decisions

70198419902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1*1015 Melvin A. Rubin, Miami, for appellant.

¶2Dwayne M. Hunter, in pro. per.

¶3Before NESBITT, BASKIN and FERGUSON, JJ.

¶4PER CURIAM.

¶5In a proceeding on a motion for contempt for failure to pay child support, the trial court ordered the mother, the father and the child to submit to a Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) blood test when the father denied paternity. The order also suspended the child support payments pending the outcome of the test. The mother appeals.

¶6If an alleged father has doubts concerning the paternity of a child born during the marriage, he should raise and resolve those doubts during the dissolution proceeding. Here, the issue of the child's paternity was resolved in the final judgment of divorce rendered March 3, 1971. This judgment incorporated an alimony, child support and property settlement agreement entered into by the parties. The divorce action involved an identity of the cause of action and parties and involved the same issue as the father now attempts to relitigate. Therefore, the final judgment of divorce is res judicata and bars any redetermination of the paternity of the child. See Johnson v. Johnson,395 So.2d 640 (Fla. 2d DCA 1981).

¶7Furthermore, the suspension of the father's requirement to pay ongoing child support constitutes a modification of a prior order, and the father did not file a petition for modification. The trial court cannot modify child support absent a pleading for modification. Parmer v. Parmer,431 So.2d 257 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983); Smithwick v. Smithwick,343 So.2d 945 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977).

¶8Accordingly, the order under review is vacated and the cause remanded for further proceedings.

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