Hodge v. Craig

Facts

Plaintiff and Defendant met at 16 years old, and Defendant was a mother of a one-year-old daughter. Defendant and Plaintiff dated on and off throughout high school and were sexually intimate. In early October 1991, Defendant broke up with Plaintiff and had sexual relations with Joey Hay. Defendant believed that she was pregnant with Hay’s child. Yet, after a negative pregnancy test, she returned to PLaintiff but never told him about Hay. Defendant admitted that she had sexual relations with both Hay and Plaintiff during the period when her son, Kyle, was conceived.

In November, Defendant told Plaintiff she thought she was pregnant, and she took a test. After a positive test, Plaintiff asked Defendant if she was sure that he was the father. Defendant said he was and that it could be no one else. As a result, Plaintiff proposed marriage to Defendant, and they were married in December 1991. Plaintiff raised Kyle believing he was his biological son, and in 1999, Plaintiff had a vasectomy. In late 2000, Defendant told Plaintiff she was having an affair, and Plaintiff and Defendant separated.

In November 2000, Defendant filed a complaint seeking divorce because of irreconcilable differences. The trial court finalized the divorce in February 2001, ordering Plaintiff to pay $250 per week in child support. During 2006 or 2007, Plaintiff began having doubts about whether he was Kyle’s biological father because he did not look like him. In February 2007, Plaintiff obtained a DNA sample from Kyle to have tested, and it was confirmed he was not his biological son. Plaintiff told Kyle and Defendant about a month later, and Defendant conceded that Plaintiff was not Kyle’s biological father.