Scoggins v. Medlock

2011 Ark. 194, 381 S.W.3d 781, 2011 Ark. LEXIS 181
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMay 5, 2011
DocketNo. 10-246
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 2011 Ark. 194 (Scoggins v. Medlock) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Scoggins v. Medlock, 2011 Ark. 194, 381 S.W.3d 781, 2011 Ark. LEXIS 181 (Ark. 2011).

Opinions

DONALD L. CORBIN, Justice.

This is an appeal from an order of the Pulaski County Circuit Court, Ninth Division, dismissing a petition to establish paternity filed by Appellant Tremayne Scog-gins. On appeal, Scoggins argues that the circuit erred in dismissing his petition pursuant to Arkansas Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and (6) (2010). As this case is before us on a petition for review, our jurisdiction is pursuant to Arkansas Supreme Court Rule 2-4 (2010). We affirm.

The record reflects that Trayvon Scog-gins died on June 9, 2006, after being struck by a cab. At the time of his death he was not yet fifteen months old. His mother, Appellee Evon M. Medlock, was the sole caregiver of the child from the time of his birth until his death. Scoggins was incarcerated in a federal penitentiary in Texas at the time of Trayvon’s birth and death. Prior to his incarceration, Scoggins was romantically involved and lived with Medlock for approximately four years. According to Medlock, she and Scoggins had two children together, Trayvon, and a daughter, Tremaya.

12Following Trayvon’s death, Medlock filed a petition to be appointed special administratrix of her son’s estate. In this petition, Medlock asserted that Scoggins was Trayvon’s biological father; however, the petition further stated, with regard to beneficiaries of any settlement, that Scog-gins was in prison and that no claim was being asserted on his behalf, unless it was determined that he was the legal father and entitled to benefits pursuant to Arkansas Code Annotated section 28-9-209 (Repl.2004).

Subsequent to her appointment, on August 6, 2006, Medlock filed a wrongful-death and survival action against Kevin L. West and his employer, Greater Little Rock Transportation, LLC, a.k.a. Yellow Cab Company. This action was filed in the Pulaski County Circuit Court, Twelfth Division. A settlement offer of $862,500 was made. On February 20, 2009, a hearing was held with regard to the settlement agreement. At that hearing, the circuit court determined that Scoggins should be represented by counsel and appointed him counsel over Medlock’s objection.

On March 12, 2009, Scoggins filed a motion to establish paternity of Trayvon, stating that the child had been born out of wedlock but that he had acknowledged paternity. He further asserted that Med-lock had acknowledged under oath that he was Trayvon’s father. He filed a second petition on July 2, 2009, requesting DNA testing, pursuant to Arkansas Code Annotated section 9-10-108 (Repl.2009), to establish paternity of the deceased child.1

1 sMedlock filed a motion to dismiss Scog-gins’s petition pursuant to Rules 12(b)(1) and (6). Therein, Medlock asserted that Scoggins had never taken any action to establish paternity prior to Trayvon’s death. Medlock argued that section 9-10-108 contemplates DNA testing when the mother is deceased or when the father is deceased, but does not contemplate such testing when the child is deceased. Thus, argued Medlock, there was no basis upon which the circuit court could exercise its subject-matter jurisdiction over a deceased child.

The circuit court granted the motion to dismiss on the basis that Scoggins’s petition asked the circuit court to do something outside the statutory powers granted by section 9-10-108. Specifically, the circuit court concluded as follows:

Because Arkansas Code Annotated § 9-10-108 does not contain a provision for establishing paternity of a deceased child through scientific testing, the Plaintiff has failed to state a claim upon which relief may be granted, and this court lacks subject matter jurisdiction. Therefore, the Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss is granted.

Scoggins appealed the dismissal of his petition to the Arkansas Court of Appeals. The court of appeals, sua sponte, determined that the appeal was moot and dismissed it. See Scoggins v. Medlock, 2010 Ark.App. 401, 2010 WL 6738089. We subsequently granted Scoggins’s petition for review. When we grant review of a decision by the court of appeals, we review the case as though the appeal had originally been filed in this court. Hudak-Lee v. Baxter Cnty. Reg’l Hosp., 2011 Ark. 31, 378 S.W.3d 77.

We review statutory interpretation de novo, as it is for this court to determine the meaning of a statute. Brown v. Kelton, 2011 Ark. 93, 380 S.W.3d 361; Dachs v. Hendrix, 2009 Ark. 542, 354 S.W.3d 95. We are not bound by the circuit court’s determination of the | ¿statute’s meaning; however, in the absence of a showing that the circuit court erred, its interpretation will be accepted as correct on appeal. See Racine v. Nelson, 2011 Ark. 50, 378 S.W.3d 93. Our rules of statutory construction are well settled:

The basic rule of statutory construction is to give effect to the intent of the legislature. Where the language of a statute is plain and unambiguous, we determine legislative intent from the ordinary meaning of the language used. In considering the meaning of a statute, we construe it just as it reads, giving the words their ordinary and usually accepted meaning in common language. We construe the statute so that no word is left void, superfluous or insignificant, and we give meaning and effect to every word in the statute, if possible.

Brown, 2011 Ark. 93, at 3, 380 S.W.3d at 364 (quoting Dachs, 2009 Ark. 542, at 7, 354 S.W.3d at 100).

As his sole point on appeal, Scog-gins argues that he has standing to conclusively estáblish paternity of Trayvon. Scoggins argues that there are some situations where the putative parent of an illegitimate child may have a right of inheritance, as demonstrated by section 28-9-209(e), which provides that paternity may be established by a court of competent jurisdiction, which in this instance, he argues, is the Ninth Division of the Pulaski County Circuit Court. Further, he argues, that Arkansas Code Annotated section 9-10-102(b) (Repl.2009) provides that a court may entertain an action to establish paternity “at any time.”

Medlock asserts, as she did below, that Scoggins’s petition for paternity is a request that the circuit court perform a function outside its statutory powers granted pursuant to section 9-10-108, as establishing paternity for a deceased child is not contemplated in the statute.

| ¿Arkansas Code Annotated section 9-10-104 (Repl.2009) provides that a putative father may file a petition to establish paternity of a child born outside of a marriage. Section 9-10-108 governs the actual paternity test and provides in relevant part as follows:

(2)(A) Upon motion of either party in a paternity action when the mother is deceased unavailable, the trial court shall order that the putative father and child submit to or scientific testing for paternity, which may include deoxyribonucleic acid typing, to determine whether or not the putative father can be excluded as being the biological father of the child and to establish the probability of paternity if the testing does not exclude the putative father.

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Bluebook (online)
2011 Ark. 194, 381 S.W.3d 781, 2011 Ark. LEXIS 181, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scoggins-v-medlock-ark-2011.