Brenda M. v. Timothy N.
Opinion of the Court
Appeal from an order of the Family Court of Saratoga County (Ferradino, J.), entered October 14, 1992, which granted petitioner’s application, in a proceeding pursuant to Family Court Act article 5, for support upon an adjudication that respondent is the father of a child born to petitioner.
This appeal by respondent is from a Family Court determination adjudicating him to be the father of a child born to petitioner on March 24, 1986. Respondent’s initial contention is that the current proceeding is barred by the doctrines of collateral estoppel and res judicata. Respondent relies upon his counsel’s trial statement that a similar proceeding had been commenced by the local Department of Social Services but was thereafter withdrawn. This contention is without merit. The record is devoid of any suggestion that the discontinuance of the initial proceeding commenced by the local Department of Social Services was made with prejudice and clearly did not constitute either a decision on the merits to trigger collateral estoppel or a valid final judgment barring further action between the same parties under the doctrine of res judicata (see, CPLR 3217 [c]; see also, Matter of Stacey O. v Donald P., 137 AD2d 965).
Respondent’s conclusory contention that Family Court placed undue weight upon two different blood analyses, demonstrating probabilities of paternity of 86.8% and 99.54% is unsupported in the record. We find no merit to that argument and find that the court properly considered the tests only as a factor which, when combined with the testimony as a whole, supplied the clear and convincing evidence needed to establish paternity (see, Matter of Helen NN. v Daniel OO., 187 AD2d 860, 861).
Mercure, White, Mahoney and Casey, JJ., concur. Ordered that the order is affirmed, without costs.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.