## Facts

- Stacy and Jason married in 1997 and had three children during the marriage.
- A 2011 dissolution decree treated Jason as the legal father of all three children and required him to pay child support for all three.
- Jason suspected he was not the biological father of the youngest child but did not raise paternity during the dissolution proceeding.
- In 2013, genetic testing showed Jason was not the biological father of the youngest child.
- Jason maintained a close relationship with the child, exercised visitation, and wished to remain a parent, but sought to stop paying support for that child.
- Stacy testified she did not know Jason was not the biological father until testing; she stated the child depended on Jason’s support and would be harmed emotionally by learning Jason was not the father.

## Issues

1. Whether a court sitting in equity may suspend or terminate a child-support obligation based on post-decree genetic testing while leaving intact the dissolution decree’s legal determination of paternity.
2. Whether any Nebraska statute or common-law doctrine authorizes relief that ends child support without disestablishing legal paternity.

## Decision

- The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s denial of Jason’s requested equitable relief.
- The court held there was no statutory or common-law basis to suspend child support while preserving Jason’s legal paternity established in the dissolution decree.
- The court reiterated that nonbiological status shown by genetic testing does not, by itself, negate legal fatherhood.

## Legal Principles

- In equity appeals, the appellate court reviews the record de novo and reaches independent conclusions on fact and law.
- Biological paternity and legal paternity are distinct; proof of nonbiological fatherhood is not equivalent to a determination that a person is not the legal father.
- Children born during wedlock are presumed legitimate, and the presumption is rebuttable only by clear, satisfactory, and convincing evidence.
- A dissolution court has jurisdiction to resolve disputed paternity; once paternity is adjudicated or accepted in a decree, the resulting legal obligations (including support) persist unless altered through authorized procedures.
- Equity cannot create a “partial parent” status that preserves parental rights while eliminating the core financial obligation of child support.
- Without statutory authorization or proper use of statutory disestablishment procedures, post-decree genetic testing does not permit suspension of an existing child-support obligation while legal paternity remains unchanged.

## Conclusion

The Nebraska Supreme Court refused to allow a post-decree, equity-based suspension of child support grounded only in later genetic testing where the obligor remained the child’s legal father under the dissolution decree and did not pursue statutory paternity-disestablishment relief.


Stacy M. v. Jason M., 290 Neb. 141, 858 N.W.2d 852 (Neb. 2015)