Est. of P.A. Sents, II v. Dellinger, K.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 18, 2022
Docket496 MDA 2022
StatusUnpublished

This text of Est. of P.A. Sents, II v. Dellinger, K. (Est. of P.A. Sents, II v. Dellinger, K.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Est. of P.A. Sents, II v. Dellinger, K., (Pa. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

J-A19012-22

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

ESTATE OF PAUL ANTHONY SENTS, : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF II, STACIE A. SENTS, PAUL A. SENTS : PENNSYLVANIA : Appellants : : : v. : : : No. 496 MDA 2022 KIRSTIN DELLINGER :

Appeal from the Order Entered February 24, 2022 In the Court of Common Pleas of York County Civil Division at No(s): 2020-FC-000925-23

BEFORE: BOWES, J., KING, J., and STEVENS, P.J.E.*

MEMORANDUM BY BOWES, J.: FILED: OCTOBER 18, 2022

The estate of Paul Anthony Sents, II (“Estate”), appeals from the

February 24, 2022 order dismissing with prejudice the Estate’s complaint to

disestablish the acknowledged paternity of Paul Anthony Sents, II

(“Decedent”) and obtain paternity testing to establish the paternity of two-

year-old A.S. After review, we affirm.

A.S. was born to Kirstin Dellinger (“Mother”) in December 2019. At the

time of A.S.’s birth, Mother had been in a relationship with Decedent since

early April 2019. N.T., 1/21/22, at 6, 109-10. Decedent and Mother were not

married. Shortly after A.S.’s birth, Decedent, with the consent of Mother,

signed an acknowledgement of paternity pursuant to 23 Pa.C.S. § 5103(a),

____________________________________________

* Former Justice specially assigned to the Superior Court. J-A19012-22

and he never challenged the acknowledgement. Decedent committed suicide

in May 2020, when A.S. was five months old.

On January 19, 2021, the Estate filed a complaint against Mother and

Dustin Sweitzer, Mother’s former paramour. In the complaint, the Estate

alleged that Decedent signed the acknowledgment of paternity solely based

upon Mother’s fraudulent misrepresentation that he was the father of A.S.

The Estate averred that Decedent’s parents, Stacie A. Sents (“Stacie”) and

Paul A. Sents (“Paul”), submitted themselves and A.S. to private genetic

testing, which established that Stacie and Paul were not genetically related to

A.S.1 The Estate sought to void the acknowledgment of paternity and

requested paternity testing of Sweitzer for the purpose of establishing his

paternity of A.S. This complaint is the only legal action concerning A.S.’s

paternity.

1 To the extent the relief sought by the Estate was a court order regarding A.S.’s paternity and not damages against Mother or Sweitzer, the Estate’s filing of a complaint against Mother and Sweitzer as opposed to a petition regarding A.S. is procedurally questionable. We also note that counsel for the Estate uses the terms “complaint” and “petition” interchangeably. Nevertheless, the certified record does not reveal whether Mother or Sweitzer raised this inconsistency in the trial court, and we do not address it sua sponte. For the sake of uniformity, we refer to the pleading as a complaint.

Similarly, the certified record does not indicate whether Stacie and/or Paul are executors of the Estate. However, because Mother challenged neither the identity of the party or parties instituting this action, nor the standing of the Estate, Stacie, or Paul, we likewise do not address these issues. See In re Estate of Brown, 30 A.3d 1200, 1205 (Pa.Super. 2011) (noting this Court cannot raise a standing issue sua sponte and a party who does not object to standing at the earliest opportunity waives any such challenge).

-2- J-A19012-22

On February 3, 2021, Mother filed an answer to the complaint. Sweitzer

did not file a responsive pleading. Instead, he obtained private paternity

testing with Mother’s consent. Based upon the private paternity test, the

parties agreed that Sweitzer was not A.S.’s father. N.T., 1/21/22, at 28-29.

By April 12, 2021 order, the trial court dismissed Sweitzer from the action by

agreement of the parties.

The trial court conducted hearings on the matter on January 21, 2022,

and February 22, 2022. At the hearings, Stacie, Paul, and Decedent’s sister

testified on behalf of the Estate. The Estate also called Mother as if she were

on cross-examination and Sweitzer as a rebuttal witness to Mother’s

testimony. Mother also testified on her own behalf.

Notably, during the hearing the Estate attempted to introduce the

results of the private DNA testing obtained of Stacie and Paul purportedly

showing that Stacie and Paul had no genetic connection to A.S. N.T., 1/21/22,

at 106. The exhibits in question were reports of DNA test results from Genex

Diagnostics, a company in Canada. See Estate Exhibit 1 and 2. One report,

dated July 22, 2020, purported to analyze the relationship between A.S. and

Paul. The second report, dated August 13, 2020, purported to analyze the

relationship between A.S. on one hand, and Paul and Stacie on the other, to

determine the likelihood that Decedent was A.S.’s father. Both test reports

contained, on their face, disclaimers by Genex Diagnostics about the

limitations of the test or its accuracy. Such limitations included the unverified

-3- J-A19012-22

assumption that Stacie and Paul were genetically related to Decedent, and

Stacie and Paul’s failure to submit to the laboratory’s identification protocols

and laboratory-selected collection facility. The reports noted that the results

were intended only for personal knowledge and not to establish legal identity

or familial relations.

Mother objected to the admission of the reports and any testimony that

the results of the reports were valid. N.T., 1/21/22, at 11, 106. Mother’s

objection was based upon the Estate’s failure to present testimony of a records

custodian from the testing company to establish the testing procedure, chain

of command, and other reliability or accuracy issues. See id. The trial court

took the issue under advisement based on its concern that the Estate laid no

foundation for how the testing company arrived at its conclusion that Stacie

and Paul were not related to A.S. and the lack of expert testimony to support

this conclusion.2 Id. at 106-08. At the second hearing, the trial court

sustained Mother’s objection and ruled the tests were inadmissible without

testimony from an appropriate Genex employee concerning the methodology

of the testing. N.T., 2/22/22, at 28-29.

2 The trial court noted it found the testimony of Decedent’s sister to be credible that she helped Stacie and Paul administer the tests, followed the testing company’s instructions, and mailed the results directly to the testing company. N.T., 1/21/22, at 106-08. It also stated it would disregard that Stacie and Paul twice obtained a DNA sample from A.S. and instructed the testing company to analyze it without Mother’s knowledge or consent, as that was not the issue before the court. Id.

-4- J-A19012-22

Also at the hearings, Stacie recalled that Decedent and Mother

announced the pregnancy several weeks after they started dating by

presenting her with a box containing a onesie and announcing that she and

Paul were going to be grandparents. N.T., 1/21/22, at 41-42. Stacie and Paul

both testified they were suspicious from the outset that Decedent was the

father of Mother’s baby based upon how early in the relationship Mother

became pregnant, as well as Decedent’s questioning his paternity prior to

A.S.’s birth when he found “panties” under the seat of Mother’s car. Id. at

41-42, 45-46, 76. Despite their misgivings, Stacie and Paul accepted

Decedent’s declaration that he was the father and treated A.S. as their

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