Following the hearing,
the trial court granted Lorence’s motion, awarding him legal custody of Bryan.
Thus, for the first time, at age 11, Bryan no longer lived with Goeller and began
living with Lorence.
For the first eleven
years of his life, Bryan resided with Goeller. It was Lorence who intruded upon
Goeller’s family unit, asserting that he had fathered a child with Goeller’s then
wife.
Appellant had been previously adjudicated the father of Jason, the issue of
paternity could not be raised in a subsequent proceeding.
We do not wish to encourage domestic relations courts and juvenile courts
to force the active litigation of the biological parentage in every divorce or parentage
action. However, the parentage of a child is adjudicated at the time a divorce occurs.
Once that adjudication has occurred, the principles of res judicata apply.
cuyahoga-support-enforcement-agency-v-guthrie
To find that the juvenile court had the authority to vacate the prior determination of paternity under either (B)(2) or (4), given the circumstances of this case, would clearly be contrary to law.
