The district court shall apply the following rules to adjudicate the paternity of a child:

1. A. the paternity of a child having a presumed, acknowledged or adjudicated father may be disproved only by admissible results of genetic testing excluding that man as the father of the child or identifying another man as the father of the child;
2. B. unless the results of genetic testing are admitted to rebut other results of genetic testing, a man identified as the father of a child pursuant to Section 5-505 of the New Mexico Uniform Parentage Act shall be adjudicated the father of the child;
3. C. if the district court finds that genetic testing pursuant to Section 5-505 of the New Mexico Uniform Parentage Act neither identifies nor excludes a man as the father of a child, the district court shall not dismiss the proceeding. In that event, the results of genetic testing and other evidence are admissible to adjudicate the issue of paternity; and
4. D. unless the results of genetic testing are admitted to rebut other results of genetic testing, a man excluded as the father of a child by genetic testing shall be adjudicated not to be the father of the child.

History: Laws 2009, ch. 215, § 6-631.

ANNOTATIONS

Effective dates. — Laws 2009, ch. 215, § 20 made the New Mexico Uniform Parentage Act effective January 1, 2010.

Results of genetic testing are required to rebut the presumption of parentage. — Where, in divorce proceedings, petitioner challenged Respondent’s standing to adjudicate parentage under the New Mexico Uniform Parentage Act (NMUPA), §§ 40-11A-101 to -903 NMSA 1978, because respondent was not biologically or genetically related to the children, the district court erred in ruling in favor of petitioner and adjudicating respondent not to be a parent of the children, because, under § 40-11A-204 NMSA 1978, respondent is presumed to be a parent of the children by virtue of their birth during her marriage to petitioner, and petitioner failed to rebut this presumption by offering genetic testing results showing that respondent has no genetic relation to the children. Based on the NMUPA’s plain language, history, and purpose, the evidentiary requirement, set out in Subsection A of this section, must be applied strictly, and a parentage presumption cannot be rebutted in the absence of admissible results of genetic testing. Soon v. Kammann, 2022-NMCA-066, cert. granted.

Law reviews. — For article, "Separation of Powers and the Judicial Rule-Making Power in New Mexico: The Need for Prudential Restraints," see 15 N.M.L. Rev. 407 (1985).

For annual Survey of New Mexico Family Law, see 17 N.M.L. Rev. 291 (1987).