Request By:
Honorable Carroll M. Redford, Jr.
Barren County Attorney
Courthouse
Glasgow, Kentucky 42141
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your office over the years has cooperated with the Kentucky Department for Human Resources in their effort to establish paternity against alleged fathers. Recently you have received requests from the Department to establish paternity when the mother and child live in Barren County, but the alleged father is outside the Commonwealth of Kentucky, either in another state or outside the United States in military service. You doubt that, for the purposes of trial under KRS 406.021, the local county court can obtain jurisdiction over such defendant.
KRS 406.021(3) reads:
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"(3) If paternity has been determined or has been acknowledged according to the laws of this state, the liabilities of the father may be enforced in the same or other proceedings by the mother, child, person or agency substantially contributing to the cost of pregnancy, confinement, education, necessary support or funeral expenses. An action to enforce the liabilities shall be brought by the county attorney upon the request of such complainant herein authorized."
KRS 406.011 provides in part that the father of a child which is or may be born out of wedlock is liable to the same extent as the father of a child born in wedlock, whether or not the child is born alive, for the reasonable expense of the mother's pregnancy and confinement and for the education, necessary support and funeral expenses of the child." (Emphasis added).
Thus a county court judgment, establishing paternity as against a particular defendant, would necessarily be in the nature of an in personam or personal judgment. See KRS 406.035. As noted above, an action to enforce the financial liabilities against the adjudged father shall be brought by the county attorney upon the request of such complainant therein authorized. Further, under the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act, the issue of paternity may be raised by the defendant unless it has been previously judicially determined. Department of Economic Security v. Shanklin, Ky., 514 S.W.2d 682 (1974) 685. Also note that under KRS 406.051 all remedies under the uniform reciprocal enforcement of support act [KRS Ch. 407] are available for enforcement of duties of support under this chapter.
We recite all of the above statutes to emphasize the "money judgment" or "personal judgment" character of the remedies available to the mother, or authorized person or agency.
Since a paternity judgment of the county court is a personal judgment, it follows that unless the defendant is personally served in Kentucky in the precise manner indicated in CR 4.04 or unless the defendant enters a voluntary appearance in the action, the judgment would be void, for lack of jurisdiction. Gayle v. Gayle, 301 Ky. 613, 192 S.W.2d 821 (1946) 822; and Prothro v. Prothro, Ky., 265 S.W.2d 39 (1954) 40. CR 4.04(7) makes it clear that, where service is made upon an individual out of this state, such service without an appearance shall not authorize a personal judgment.