Kays v. Zarko

20 Pa. D. & C.3d 198, 1981 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 327
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Northumberland County
DecidedJune 23, 1981
DocketCV-80-2879
StatusPublished

This text of 20 Pa. D. & C.3d 198 (Kays v. Zarko) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Northumberland County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kays v. Zarko, 20 Pa. D. & C.3d 198, 1981 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 327 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1981).

Opinion

KREHEL, P.J.,

On June 22, [199]*1991981, a two-hour non-jury trial posed the problem of the weight to be given to the most recent scientific evidence in paternity cases: the HLA white blood cell test, when coupled with the red blood cell test. Counsel had stipulated to the admission into evidence the Baltimore Rh Typing Library Report without the need to call witnesses for testimony in the drawing of the blood samples from the birth-mother, her child, and the alleged birth-father, nor the laboratory testing of these samples.

Paternity cases have always turned on the preponderance of evidence to attempt to prove fatherhood, and, in the past, courts have relied in part on red blood cell tests as exclusionary evidence. With new scientific testing of HLA white blood cells els inclusionary evidence, this court takes the additional step of detailing the new development of such inclusionary evidence in resolving the question of paternity submitted here on all of the evidence: the new scientific test, as well as the old-fashioned testimony of the accuser and the accussee. We note the JARA touchstone in 42 Pa.C.S.A. §6136 of the effect of test results.

From testimony heard, review of exhibits, and reference to published material of the staff of the Baltimore Rh Typing Laboratory on or about April 11, 1980, we determined the following

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Plaintiff, Brenda L. Kays, is an unmarried adult residing in Mount Carmel, Northumberland County, Pa., and the birth-mother of Jeffrey J. Kays, born April 13, 1980, the subject of these proceedings.

2. Defendant, Peter Zarko, Jr., is an unmarried adult residing in Mount Carmel, Northumberland County, Pa. and the alleged birth-father of Jeffrey.

[200]*2003. Plaintiff testified that she mothered three children, one had been placed in adoption, another named Tania was the subject of a paternity suit against Richard Kopitski in October, 1980, before our colleague, Judge Samuel C. Ranck, and Jeffrey, the subject here. In the Kopitski case, Judge Ranck dismissed the action. Plaintiff testified that she was required by the State Welfare Department to file this action.

4. Plaintiff further testified that she had sexual intercourse on two consecutive Saturdays in June, 1978, with defendant at his home, by which she established conception. In cross-examination, she stated that she told defendant later that he “was not the father of my child,” putting the statement in an undated letter (Defendant’s Ex. #1, and Ex. #1-A), such writing having been done “voluntarily,” she “meant it” when she “did it,” that it “was the truth;” and postmarked December 20, 1979 (Defendant’s Ex. #1-A).

5. Plaintiff also testified that she hand-carried the letter to defendant’s home, which was contradicted by defendant’s testimony, then stated that the letter referred to another child, Tania (for whom Richard Kopitski had been accused in December, 1978), claiming that she wrote two letters (denied by defendant), and admitted significantly that the Department of Welfare hadpressed her into filing this paternity suit for the welfare checks she is receiving from the State.

6. Plaintiff’s testimony included her knowing of the “blood test reports” and the “plausibility” of 99.76 percent that defendant is the birth-parent father of the child, but that the defendant “doesn’t admit it,” and “doesn’t support it.”

7. Defendant testified that there was only one letter from plaintiff; that he asked her for it in De[201]*201cember, 1979, during her pregnancy; that he didn’t force her to write it, and no child is named, although the letter refers to the yet-to-be-bom, yet-to-be-named “Jeffrey”; and that he “continually denied” that he was, or is, the birth-parent father.

8. Defendant’s testimony indicated his denial of sexual relations with plaintiff in June, 1979; that his last sexual relationship with plaintiff was in 1978; and that he “was dating others,” and “not frolicking around.”

9. On cross-examination, defendant testified that although he denied paternity, he still wanted the letter from plaintiff; the he was “not accused of Tania, even by Kopitski”; and that the letter pertained to the unborn, unnamed Jeffrey, for whom he is accused.

10. Counsel stipulated to the admission of the Baltimore Rh Typing Laboratory Report, dated November 21, 1980, on tests performed on November 20, 1980 of Brenda L. Kays, Jeffrey Kays, and Peter Zarko, Jr., with red cell typings, as well as typing of white blood cell antigen system, known as Human Leukocyte Antigens, or HLA (which are present on most tissues and organs in the body). This report, over the signature of R. Ben Dawson, M.D., admitted as plaintiff’s Exhibit #1 (Lab #11234 (14380359)), concludes that “on the basis of these tests, Zarko, Peter, Jr. cannot be excluded as the father of Kays, Jeffrey. PATERNITY INDEX=412 to 1 PLAUSIBILITY OF PATERNITY= 99.76%. ”

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

As prefaced in the opening paragraph, the admission of the most recent scientific blood tests of white blood cell antigens (HLA) as inclusionary [202]*202evidence, poses the problem of the weight to be attached to it by a trial judge, especially in cases like the one at bar, where the bottom line is 99.76 percent “plausibility of paternity.”

Two factors aid in the resolution of this problem: That we consider all of the evidence, including the conflicting testimony and its credibility, to determine if there is a preponderance to prove paternity; and that we examine the published material of the staff of Baltimore Rh Typing Laboratory on or about April 11, 1980. It is a unique coincidence that this court, through its domestic relations section, sponsored an Eleven County Regional Seminar on April 11, 1980, with staff members from Baltimore Rh Typing Laboratory as speakers and seminar leaders, and the subject of these proceedings, Jeffrey Kays, was born on April 13, 1980, two days after the Sunbury Seminar.

This court had issued an order on November 1, 1979, to CV-79-3212 outhning this county’s procedures on civil actions questioning, or establishing, paternity, by designating Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, Montour County, Pa., as the place for drawing the blood samples of birth-parent mother, her child, and the accused birth-parent father, as well as designating the Baltimore Rh Typing Laboratory as the facility for testing red blood cells and white blood cell antigens (HLA), and filing reports with our domestic relations section. Plaintiff’s Exhibit #1 typifies the reports submitted.

Before examining the published material of the Baltimore Rh Typing Laboratory, we focus attention on the conflicting testimony of the accuser and the accusee. At the outset, we conclude that plaintiff’s credibility diminished in direct proportion to the length of her testimony. She had accused Richard Kopitski of fathering Tania, and Judge [203]*203Samuel C. Ranck did not believe her. My honorable colleague dismissed the case.

Plaintiff was pressed by the State Welfare Department to file this action against someone from whom support payments could be gleaned, rather than welfare checks paid.

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Related

§ 6136
Pennsylvania § 6136

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Bluebook (online)
20 Pa. D. & C.3d 198, 1981 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 327, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kays-v-zarko-pactcomplnorthu-1981.