Opinion
No. 1-1044 / 01-0450.
Filed December 30, 2002.
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Black Hawk County, BRUCE ZAGER, (motion to dismiss), and K.D. BRINER, (trial), Judges.
A father who was never married to the mother of his daughter appeals from a paternity adjudication and an order requiring him to pay his daughter a postsecondary education subsidy. AFFIRMED IN PART AND REVERSED IN PART.
Donna Lesyshen, Waterloo, for appellant.
John Rausch, Waterloo, for appellee.
Heard by MAHAN, P.J., and ZIMMER and EISENHAUER, JJ.
Respondent Richard St. John appeals from a judgment adjudicating him to be the father of Kristy Maynard and granting his daughter a postsecondary education subsidy. St. John argues the district court erred in denying his motion to dismiss. He claims the doctrine of issue preclusion bars Kristy's action. He also claims the record does not support a postsecondary education subsidy under Iowa Code section 598.21(5A) (1999). St. John also finds fault with the district court's award of attorney fees to his daughter. For the reasons which follow, we affirm the paternity adjudication and reverse the postsecondary education subsidy.
I. Background Facts and Proceedings.
Kristy Maynard was born May 8, 1982. She is the biological daughter of Kellie Downing and Richard St. John. Kellie and Richard were never married. Kellie died in 1995. At the time of her death, she was married to Daniel Downing. Downing has never adopted Kristy. Until shortly after her mother's death, Kristy believed Downing was her father. She first met her biological father in 1997 or 1998. Kristy and Richard have had little contact with each other and do not share a close relationship.
In June 1982, a petition was filed against St. John seeking to establish paternity and support of Kristy. The petition was dismissed in March 1986 under former Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 215.1. In June 1986, the Child Support Recovery Unit (CSRU) filed another petition on behalf of Kristy's mother, Kellie Downing, seeking a paternity adjudication and support from St. John. Paternity tests conducted in 1987 established that St. John is Kristy's father. The second paternity action was dismissed twice for failure to prosecute under rule 215.1. The first dismissal was without prejudice and the case was reinstated. When CSRU received a second rule 215.1 notice warning of dismissal, CSRU wrote to Kellie warning her that if she did not go forward with the case, it would be dismissed with prejudice. Kellie did not respond to the warning. In an order entered in November 1988, Judge Joseph Keefe dismissed the case with prejudice; however, in his ruling, Judge Keefe stated, "It's the Court's opinion that any action taken here will not [a]ffect the rights of the child, Kristy Lea Maynard." Kristy was six years old at the time and unaware St. John was her father.
Former Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 215.1 has been renumbered as rule 1.944.
In March 2000, Daniel Downing filed a petition on behalf of Kristy, then seventeen years of age, seeking to establish paternity, child support, and college expenses. The action was brought pursuant to Iowa Code chapter 600B. St. John moved to dismiss the action claiming the 1988 dismissal with prejudice was issue preclusive. Judge Bruce Zager ruled issue preclusion barred Kristy and Downing from pursuing any claim for past or current child support. However, the court found that Kristy, in her own right, could pursue her claim for paternity and a postsecondary education subsidy.
Trial was eventually held before Judge K.D. Briner regarding the remaining issues of paternity and postsecondary education support. At the time of trial, Kristy had reached majority and was in her second semester of college study. Judge Briner overruled St. John's renewed motion to dismiss after concluding that Judge Zager's order established the law of the case. During trial, the parties stipulated to a finding that the probability of St. John's paternity is 99.74%. St. John did not contest the issue of paternity at trial. Following trial, the court found St. John was Kristy's natural father and ordered him to pay Kristy a postsecondary education subsidy of $225 per month. The court also ordered St. John to pay a portion of Kristy's attorney fees. St. John appeals.
II. Scope of Review.
We review actions in equity de novo. Iowa R.App.P. 6.4. We give weight to the factual findings of the trial court; however, we are not bound by them. Id. 6.14(6)(g). We review a district court's ruling on a motion to dismiss for correction of errors at law. Id. 6.4; Robbins v. Heritage Acres, 578 N.W.2d 262, 264 (Iowa Ct.App. 1998).
III. Discussion.
St. John first contends the trial court erred in denying a portion of his motion to dismiss. He contends Judge Zager was correct in precluding the petitioners from pursuing past or present child support, but erred in allowing Kristy to pursue an adjudication of paternity and a claim for a postsecondary education subsidy. On appeal, Kristy has not challenged the district court's decision to limit her claim to one for a postsecondary education subsidy. Upon review of the record, we conclude the district court was correct in allowing Kristy to pursue an adjudication of paternity. The circumstances surrounding the entry of the rule 215.1 dismissal in 1988, and the language used by the court in its order, indicate that the court did not intend to preclude Kristy from pursuing a paternity action in the future. We now turn to Kristy's claim for a postsecondary education subsidy.
St. John contends the record does not reveal good cause for a postsecondary education subsidy under section 598.21(5A). Kristy disagrees. In the context of this case, we find it unnecessary to address the parties' arguments concerning this section. Petitioner filed the present action under authority of chapter 600B, not chapter 598. Iowa Code section 600B.1 provides, in pertinent part:
The parents of a child born out of wedlock and not legitimized (in this chapter referred to as "the child") owe the child necessary maintenance, education, and support.
Later in chapter 600B, section 600B.39 provides, "For purposes of this chapter, " child" means a person less than eighteen years of age." Chapter 600B clearly provides a mechanism for obtaining support for a person less than eighteen years of age. However, the chapter contains no provisions which authorize the court to order a postsecondary education subsidy. In addition, chapter 600B does not contain any reference to section 598.21(5A), the basis for the court's award in this case.
Iowa Code section 598.21(5A) provides the mechanism for obtaining a postsecondary education subsidy for the children of a dissolved marriage
Similarly, at common law a parent is only obligated to support his or her child until the child reaches the age of majority, unless the child is physically or mentally incapable of caring for itself. See Davis v. Davis, 246 Iowa 262, 266, 67 N.W.2d 566, 568 (1954); Addy v. Addy, 240 Iowa 255, 258, 36 N.W.2d 352, 355 (1949); Blachley v. Laba, 63 Iowa 22, 23-24, 18 N.W. 658, 660 (1884). There is no exception to this rule, which operates to provide a postsecondary education subsidy to a person over the age of majority. We conclude St. John was under no common law or statutory obligation to provide support of any kind for Kristy after she reached her eighteenth birthday. See Johnson v. Louis, ___ N.W.2d ___ (Iowa 2002).
We affirm the trial court's adjudication that Richard Anthony St. John is the natural father of Kristy Maynard. We affirm the trial court's award of attorney fees. See Bryant v. Schuster, 447 N.W.2d 566, 568-69 (Iowa Ct.App. 1989). We reverse the trial court's award of a postsecondary education subsidy. We award no attorney fees on appeal.