State ex rel. Secy’ v. Cares (Kansas 2021)

A voluntary acknowledgement has the effect of an order of paternity and the statutes designate specific timeframes for recission. The State brought an action to enforce a child support order against the father. The father argued the voluntary acknowledgement of paternity, which was signed four years prior, was void. The district court found no basis to set aside the paternity acknowledgement. The father appealed. The appellate court affirmed the decision. The statute sets out two specific timeframes for rescinding a paternity acknowledgement. First, there is a sixty-day grace period. Second, the acknowledgement can be rescinded up to one year after the child’s birth on the grounds of fraud, duress, or material mistake of fact. Neither of these timeframes applied in this case. Recission was not a legal possibility.