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FILED
Oct 05 2010, 12:45 pm

PRO SE APPELLANT
Barrington A. Smith Durham, NC 27722
of the supreme court, court of appeals and tax court

CLERK

______________________________________________________________________________

In the

Indiana Supreme Court
_________________________________ No. 02S03-1010-JV-518 IN RE: THE MATTER OF PATERNITY OF PETITIONER, P.S.S. BY NEXT FRIEND BARRINGTON A. SMITH, Appellant (Petitioner below), v. LISA M. SMITH AND GARY J. DRAKE, Appellees (Respondents below). _________________________________ Appeal from the Allen Superior Court, Juvenile Division, No. 02D07-0811-JP-000941 The Honorable Stephen M. Sims, Judge _________________________________ On Petition To Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 02A03-0904-JV-136 _________________________________

October 5, 2010

Rucker, Justice.

Father appealed the trial court's denial of his motion for relief from judgment. Because Father failed to demonstrate the trial court abused its discretion in so doing, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Facts and Procedural History Barrington Smith ("Father") and Lisa Smith ("Mother") were married in 1985. Four children were born during the marriage: B.A.S., born in 1986; S.M.S., born in 1989; P.S.S., born in 1992; and C.W.S., born in 1996. In 2000 Father petitioned for dissolution in the Allen Circuit Court. Mother and Father reached a mediated settlement agreement in June 2001 regarding custody and support in which they asserted that C.W.S. "is the biological child of a third person, not a party to this case. A paternity case is pending in the Allen Superior Court concerning said child." App. at 34. The parties agreed to share joint custody of the three remaining children. Id. This mediated settlement agreement was incorporated into a larger "marital settlement agreement" filed with the trial court in August 2001. App. at 27. In an August 23, 2001 trial court order concerning "additional submissions" the following handwritten notation appears: "Before the presumption, that the husband is the father of the child, [P.S.S.] can be rebutted, there must be a GAL for said child. The Court now appoints Roger Hultquist as GAL for the child, [P.S.S.]. Dissolution will be deferred pending resolution of the issue of paternity." App. at 39.1 In November 2001 the trial court approved the marital settlement agreement and entered a decree of dissolution. Seven years later in November 2008 referring to himself as the "Legal Father," Father acting as "next friend" of P.S.S., who was sixteen years of age at the time, filed in the Allen Juvenile Court a pro se petition to establish paternity. Mother and Gary J. Drake

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Indiana Law