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In re Parentage of J.M.K.9/15/2005
signed the paternity affidavit. The paternity affidavit provided at the top of the document:
This Document Establishes Paternity Pursuant to RCW 26.26.040
NOTE: Notarized signatures of the parents below establish legal paternity and the responsibility to support this child. This document becomes binding sixty (60) days after it is filed with the Department of Health. After 60 days, paternity can not be changed without a court order.
CP at 12. Both their signatures were notarized. Under former RCW 26.26.040(1)(e) (1997), after the 60-day period has passed, the acknowledgement of paternity may be challenged in court only on the basis of fraud, duress, or material mistake of fact, with the burden upon the challenger. Kepl did not challenge paternity of JMK within 60 days after the filing of the acknowledgment.
Kepl visited JMK weekly. Kepl took Brock and JMK on vacation and participated in holiday events with Brock and JMK. The record contains numerous photographs of Kepl holding and playing with JMK including Kepl and JMK at Woodland Park Zoo in 2000, at Mount Rainer Park in 2001, and at his home and at Brock's home. Photographs also show Kepl attending JMK's first and second birthday parties. The record also contains professional photographs of Kepl, Brock and JMK posed as a traditional family taken in April 1999.
In April 1999, when JMK was four months old, Kepl applied for a $100,000 life insurance policy identifying JMK as his son and primary beneficiary and identifying Brock as his significant other and contingent beneficiary. Kepl had a separate life insurance policy in effect for his daughter, AK, for $500,000. Kepl's insurance policy application was approved in May 1999 for $100,000 coverage requiring annual payments of $749 for 20 years.
In February 2001, Brock conceived a second child, again using in vitro fertilization. Brock claims that having a second child, a sibling for JMK, was Kepl's idea and that Kepl paid Brock $700 to help pay for the medical procedure. Kepl claims that he had no input into the decision to conceive a second child. Brock gave birth to a second son, DRK, on October 27, 2001. Kepl visited the hospital while Brock was in labor and the day after DRK was born. However, Kepl did not sign a paternity affidavit for DRK.
Prior to the first child's birth, Kepl and Brock set up a joint savings account for JMK. Kepl paid approximately $400-600 a month, which was briefly increased to $1,000 after the second child was born. The record contains bank records indicating that Kepl made child support payments until January 2002, when JMK was three years old and DRK was three months old. According to both parties, Kepl stopped making the payments after Kepl's wife found out about his extramarital affair in January 2002. Kepl claims he paid child support payments in order to continue his sexual relationship with Brock and due to blackmail, to keep Brock from telling his wife about their relationship. Kepl also claims that he was under a lot of stress during the time Brock gave birth to her first child and signed the paternity affidavit under blackmail, duress and/or fraud. Additionally, Kepl claimed he donated sperm only as a friend, and did not intend to be a parent. In contrast, Brock claims that Kepl voluntarily made child support payments and purchased the life insurance policy for JMK, consistent with his involvement and visitation with her first son, and voluntarily signed the paternity affidavit.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
On February 20, 2002, Brock filed a petition to establish JMK's and DRK's parentage in the Superior Court of Pierce County. In the petition, Brock requested the cour
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