Angela B. v. Glenn D.

126 Misc. 2d 646, 482 N.Y.S.2d 971, 1984 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3681
CourtNew York City Family Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1984
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 126 Misc. 2d 646 (Angela B. v. Glenn D.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York City Family Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Angela B. v. Glenn D., 126 Misc. 2d 646, 482 N.Y.S.2d 971, 1984 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3681 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1984).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Stanley Gartenstein, J.

In the face of almost overwhelming acceptance of the so-called HLA (human leucocyte antigen)1 and other blood tests now mandated in filiation proceedings,2 the disturbing question presented in this protracted litigation was bound to arise sooner or later. Paraphrased: In a paternity proceeding, where a Judge has carefully heard and weighed the evidence and has concluded that a petitioner’s case is utterly devoid of merit, must this conclusion, representing an application of the aggregate skills and instincts of a trained jurist and the evolution of the judicial process over centuries of trial and error yield to the result of a laboratory test which flatly contradicts it? Paraphrased still [647]*647further in the provocative title used by the author of a recent article in the Brooklyn Bar Association Barrister, HLA Paternity Testing: Who Needs Family Court Judges? (Brooklyn Barrister, No. 143).

Translated with specificity to the proceedings now before us, the issue herein involves a petitioner who, the court concludes cannot differentiate between fact and fiction, and whose testimony strongly suggests that it and other evidence was tailored specifically for this proceeding, as against the results of an HLA blood test which purport to establish respondent as the father of the subject child by a 99.7% plausibility of paternity.

Because of an inchoate malaise harbored increasingly over the years by the undersigned and numbers of his colleagues, unarticulated because this test is rarely challenged directly, the crystallization of this issue takes on major significance requiring reference to the underlying concepts at length.

Realizing full well that no degree of expert testimony can by itself impart to a court’s holding that degree of expertise in medicine or statistics, or in their interface, which a definitive study would require, the court nevertheless believes it essential to make in-depth reference to the underlying medical and statistical concepts in the belief that, faced with a legislative enactment, the “properjudicial role is to accept the plain letter of the statute and to engage in a continuing dialogue with the Legislature, particularly during this experimental period” (Matter of Smith v Jones, 120 Misc 2d 834, 841). This dialogue is made especially appropriate by the potential injustice caused by hundreds, possibly thousands, of men across the State who admit paternity relying on the results of this test; courts which too often accept its results without reference to its hidden flaws;3 and, in the final analysis, a Legislature which has mandated its use possibly without awareness of these flaws.

the facts:

The within filiation proceeding to declare respondent the father of the infant Alexis D. was commenced on June 19,1983, nine months after her birth. At the protracted trial before the undersigned, petitioner testified that the subject infant was born on September 27, 1982, as a result of a sexual liaison with respondent on January 11, 1982. The relationship between the [648]*648parties began when petitioner met respondent, an accountant, at a time when they were both working in different capacities for the same accounting firm. After their initial meeting, a relationship ensued as a result of her overtures. This friendship included regular sexual intimacy which took place at respondent’s apartment. Petitioner admitted that respondent terminated the relationship in June, 1981. Nevertheless, she claimed continued sporadic sexual relations with him until February 11, 1982. Petitioner also admitted regular sexual encounters with four other men between June, 1981 and February, 1982, yet denied intercourse with any male other than respondent during the critical period, December, 1981 through February 11, 1982. Petitioner’s specific claim was that she and respondent had sexual intercourse on January 11,1982; that her last menstrual period was January 2-5, 1982; and that the subject infant was born as a result of this encounter.

To bolster her testimony, petitioner introduced her diary for the period in question which was received in evidence without objection. The entries therein tell more about petitioner than about her relationship with respondent.^ A partial list of sex partners for this limited period as culled from the diary includes the following impressive array: Larry W., Alfredo V., Darryl H., Tony P., and James C. — not to mention one Charles W., with whom she shared an apartment and who she falsely listed as her husband (and the father of her three nonexistent children) on an apparently perjured application for employment-related benefits. Not only did petitioner keep a chronicle of her adventures (incomplete, by her own account) but the listings therein also utilize a rating system which evaluates the sexual prowess of each sex partner. On July 2,1981, Darryl H. was rated “The best yet!” The following week, speaking of Larry W., the diary informs us that “The earth moved!!!” Interestingly, on the very day that Darryl H.’s performance was rated “The best yet,” petitioner confides to her diary her apparently irresistible attraction for yet another man, one Larry W., about whom she warns herself “If I had any sense at all I’d leave this man alone.”

But she didn’t. Petitioner’s diary documents a relationship with this same Larry W., through and including January 26, 1982, in spite of denials thereof under oath. Moreover, the record further establishes that petitioner was in fact living with said Larry W., through February 22, 1982, at which time her diary establishes that she moved away into her own apartment. It is to be noted that the date of conception herein, January 11, 1982, was at a time when petitioner was still living with said Larry W., without benefit of clergy.

[649]*649In her demeanor on the witness stand and in the courtroom during the trial, petitioner’s demonstrated instability of temperament caused the court to admonish her on more than one occasion. She is currently under psychiatric treatment for emotional instability. When asked about her alleged use of mind distorting drugs, petitioner invoked her privilege against self incrimination. Her appearance in court was often glassy-eyed and furtive. Her exaggerated sense of the dramatic produced a contradiction concerning sexual encounters between the parties as regards the limited listing in the bill of particulars compared with her claims on the witness stand of sex with respondent on “hundreds” of occasions.

Nor was petitioner’s credibility improved by other evidence. In her sworn petition, she alleged a course of sexual relations with respondent commencing on October 22, 1980, and ending on January 20, 1982, flatly contradicting her own testimony which fixed the last act of intercourse as February 11, 1982.

Turning again to petitioner’s diaries, it is significant to note that for each and every occasion on which respondent’s name appears after June, 1981, the date when he broke off this relationship, it is in fact the very last entry for that particular date. Even more telling is the fact that her diary entry for August 3, 1981, already filled with a prior notation, squeezes respondent’s name in sideways. The inference that these entries were made after the fact and in anticipation of litigation appears to be more than justified.

Further comparison of the diary with the bill of particulars leads to another interesting observation.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

King v. Tanner
142 Misc. 2d 1004 (New York Supreme Court, 1989)
State Ex Rel. Coyle-Reite v. Reite
728 P.2d 625 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1986)
Constance G. v. Lewis L.
119 A.D.2d 209 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1986)
Commissioner of Social Services v. O'Brien
130 Misc. 2d 586 (NYC Family Court, 1985)
Commissioner of Social Services v. Louis T.
126 Misc. 2d 731 (NYC Family Court, 1984)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
126 Misc. 2d 646, 482 N.Y.S.2d 971, 1984 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3681, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/angela-b-v-glenn-d-nycfamct-1984.