Can paternity be challeneged after death?

What is the name of your state? New Jersey

Upon further examination there are certain cases in which paternity was challenge after signing of the Birth Certificate.

My father was 78 at the time of conception, had had a vasectomy 30 years prior and had prostate cancer. My 40 year old step mother is claiming rights to his estate based on her child. Can my brother and I challenge the paternity now even if the certificate was signed by him? What if it isn't? Does New Jersey still consider teh child his as they were married when it was born?

dmckid said:

What is the name of your state? New Jersey

Upon further examination there are certain cases in which paternity was challenge after signing of the Birth Certificate.

My father was 78 at the time of conception, had had a vasectomy 30 years prior and had prostate cancer. My 40 year old step mother is claiming rights to his estate based on her child. Can my brother and I challenge the paternity now even if the certificate was signed by him? What if it isn't? Does New Jersey still consider teh child his as they were married when it was born?

Click to expand...

This is his legal child and he knowingly signed the birth Certificate/paternity acknowledgement. Father could have challenged paternity while he was alive, so unless he was not competent at the time of the birth and signing of documents, this is his legal child and has rights ot the estate.

What about our irrevocable trust that specifically names my brother and I as in my previous post? Can she grandfather her child in even though no amendment was made and it does not state simply shildren but names the two children the trust was established for?

dmckid said:

What about our irrevocable trust that specifically names my brother and I as in my previous post? Can she grandfather her child in even though no amendment was made and it does not state simply shildren but names the two children the trust was established for?

Click to expand...

Well you didn't mention any irrevocable trust in this post, I'm not a mind reader what is the exact wording of the trust? Leave out the names? Remember there may be other language in the trust that would cover other children, or if it was written long before this marriage and child, he may have been under the impression that it covered all children specifically named and any that might be unborn and unplanned at that time. You think your brother/sister doesn't deserve thier share just because you are older? He went to the trouble signing the birth certificate didn't he?

We don't know if he singed the birth certificate, I have to petition a copy of it, and I don't have her exact birth date. My father was devastated by this child and the fact that his wife cheated on him but was in no position to walk away. She signed a prenup, and no, if it was legitimately his child they are entitled to what is theirs. This trust was set up for HIS children and never amended. THe wording does not mention future children, or ALL children it names specifically my brother and I. COnsidering my father borrowed substantial amounts of money from my brother and I, forced us both into bankrupcy and but us both through court trials our entire lives, no I don't feel this child is anywhere near as deserving as we are. Besides, the childs real father happens to be a very weathy man (yes we all know who the real father is). I can't imagine that my father would be stupid enough to sign the birth certifciate of a child he knew was not his and that he was very upset over the conception of, but if she threatened to leave him if he didn't... she is a nurse, he was very ill and broke execpt for teh trust established for us.

This woman won't even give us back our family pictures. I was k=his kid for 30 years, she was his cheating wife for 4.

I am sorry, I had another post regarding the trust that no one responded to yet.

dmckid said:

We don't know if he singed the birth certificate, I have to petition a copy of it, and I don't have her exact birth date. My father was devastated by this child and the fact that his wife cheated on him but was in no position to walk away. She signed a prenup, and no, if it was legitimately his child they are entitled to what is theirs. This trust was set up for HIS children and never amended. THe wording does not mention future children, or ALL children it names specifically my brother and I. COnsidering my father borrowed substantial amounts of money from my brother and I, forced us both into bankrupcy and but us both through court trials our entire lives, no I don't feel this child is anywhere near as deserving as we are. Besides, the childs real father happens to be a very weathy man (yes we all know who the real father is). I can't imagine that my father would be stupid enough to sign the birth certifciate of a child he knew was not his and that he was very upset over the conception of, but if she threatened to leave him if he didn't... she is a nurse, he was very ill and broke execpt for teh trust established for us.

This woman won't even give us back our family pictures. I was k=his kid for 30 years, she was his cheating wife for 4.

I am sorry, I had another post regarding the trust that no one responded to yet.

Click to expand...

We don't necessiarly go looking through all your posts and may respond to what you post, so it is important to provied all relevant facts and not change them. This gets more and more complicated....

Since they were married it is not required that he sign either birth certificate or acknowledgement. The wording of the prenup is not relevant to the issues of the child, no one can sign away the child's rights before they are conceived. YOur father could have contested paternity and demanded a DNA test, he did not. It is possible that after the estate is settled, the child's mother can still file a paternity action against the biological father or not. You are not privy to the understanding between your father and his wife.

The fact that your father borrowed money from you or that you had to file for bankrupcy doesn't entitle you to more of the estate than anyother heir, in fact those debts were forgiven.

I'm not saying that what happened is right or fair, but legally speaking, that child has a claim to the estate and that is what the process of probate is for.

FOr the record, I did not file for bankrupcy, his creditors forced me into bankrupcy, involuntary, because he tried to hide all his assets in mine and my brothers name without us knowing. We contested it, but at a substatial cost to us and the filing still goes on your credit report until you fight with them to remove it.

SO what you are saying is, jsut because they are married, and even if he didn't sing the papers, or acknowledge the child as his, the child still has rights to his estate and even if he did acknowledge the child the mother can double ding and get money from the bio dad as well, boy that's fair.

Why would he challenge to establish paternity if he knew the child wasn't his. SHe told him whom she slept with (her ex) and that it was his child.

And also, the trust does gets divided to her even though it specifically names my brother and I? Also the trust was set up under the Cristina Corporation with help of my mom, as far as she says, even though he owned that corp, so if he doesnt specifically say no other kids she gets it too.

Your father had the opportunity to prove paternity fraud by requesting a DNA test, that would be the actions of a reasonable person if they had reason to suspect the child was not his and since he knew she had slep with her ex and that he had had a Vas/Prostate cancer, a reasonable person would have assumed they were infertile. So while you could claim there was paternity fraud, the mother will claim that he acknowledged the child and did nothing or perhaps even encouraged her to have the child. If you claim he was incompetent and therefore took no actions, apparently he was adept enough to hide his assets in your name? How much is this estate worth?

he hid the assets long before he married her. By the time they were married all he had was all his antiques and his 400 acre estate in NJ. The bank forclosed on the estate and the furniture was sold to pay creditors, he had not penny one. he couldn't have afforded to legally contest anything, he was living off her money.

All he left was a trust for my brother and I and it specifically names my borther and I "I lease x trust to my children, george and mary (of course not our names). I can't get my hands on the doc as HER lawyer has it and has not been forth coming. He says he assumes that the other child should have been added, and those were his words exactly.

She is entitled to whatever the state gives her, she took care of a dying man, anything that he did have financially goes to her as it certainly does not equal the inital $50,000 she is entitled to as I undersand it.

There is not money in the estate except the established trust. He was broke, all he has was his worldly posetions of which my brother and I can't even get one picture, not to mention the dishes and curtains that belonged to our mother and were in storage with him for me, but she says they are hers now, whatever. The only other money in the estate is from unclaimed funds in the state of new york that I was promised the entirety of if I did all the paper work to retrieve itto repay a tiny portion of a $90,000 debt I have a note for from him, he died shortly before we finished. Fine, they can have the "estate" but I think the trust should belong to whom it was set up for, if he wanted to provide for the child, he knew she was there and never amended it, he had ample time to do so.

I think that is sucks that he was too broke to demand established paternity and some poor kid doesn't get to know their real dad.

He was in the process of rebuilding a company and a future but nothing ever came of it :-(.

This woman as you say, took care of a broke, manipulating, lying and dying, elderly man, she paying out of her funds. The trust is part of the estate and she is not taking advantage of you and your father took advantage of you, your sibling, your mother, her and his other legal child. What your father did was unfair and deceitful, don't take it out on an innocent child.

So she is also entitled to our trust? Probably not because that was a pre marriage asset.

But what you are saying is the child is entitled to the trust, even though it explicitly names my brother and I and not other children and does not metion future children?

She was not without in the marriage, when he married her he was driving an NSX and lived in a 40 million dollar house. They lived quite nicely for a while, he was only broke recently. She is not an angle, sir, anna nicole comes to mind. She had full expectations of him being a millionaire again shortly.

Mind you, the first thing she did when she moved in was rid my father of his children. We couldn't even visit him. We both talked to him every day and he snuck out to dinner with us when he could, but she is evil, yet still entitled.

Your father was no angel either.

I never claimed he was. For the record he never called the child his nor did he tell person one in his family of this child. The day he died, she ups with look he had a kid.

And I will be the first one to admit my father was a *******, but he was my dad and i loved him to death, and took care of him as long as I could. he wanted to leave her and live with me when she cheated oon him but he refused to burden me with caring for two children as a single mothe rand a dying father.

I sure wish he did.

And for teh record, we are not talking aobut millions or even hundreds of thousands of dollars here, only about $40,000 if that. After taxes it doesn't even pay off my student loans. Nor am I well off by any stretch, I make a lower middle class income and support 3 kids. So I am not a money hungry rich girl fighting for more money when I don't need it.

That being the case the longer you fight it, the more the attorney's get.