Ritter v. Danbury

Gilbert, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Gail M. Ritter, appellant, has appealed from a dismissal of her paternity action brought against Charles Danbury, appellee. This appeal presents two questions, viz.: 1. Did the trial court err in refusing to take judicial notice of the normal period of gestation? 2.

Was the trial court in error in allowing appellee’s then counsel to strike their appearance from the cause in contravention of Maryland Rule 125c 2 ? The record reveals that the appellant, then age 17, met the appellee, then 16 years old, on Christmas Day, 1966, and after riding in his automobile and consuming a quantity of alcohol until she was “rather high,” the couple engaged in sexual relations on the back seat of the automobile. Appellant acknowledged that she had previously had sexual relations with another male in October of 1966. Thereafter, she said, she had her usual menstrual periods through the first part of December, 1966.

Appellant denied having her menses after her copulation with the appellee until the termination of her ³¹¹ pregnancy. She testified that she did not have sexual intercourse with any other person subsequent to the act with appellee on Christmas Day, 1966, or until well after the birth of her son in September, 1967. The testimony also revealed that the appellant has subsequently given birth to a second child, out of wedlock, sired by another person whose identity is not relevant to this case. The appellee did not testify, but answers to interrogatories filed in accordance with Maryland Rule 417 b reveal that he acknowledged having intercourse with the appellant at the time that she alleged.

Appellant readily admitted that following the birth of her son in September, 1967, and for a few months thereafter, she told other persons that the father of the child was the young man with whom she had had sexual relations in October, 1966. It was not until later that she claimed the appellee to be the father. There was uncontradicted testimony that the appellant communicated via telephone with the appellee who was then attending college in Florida, relative to support for appellant’s infant son, and that the appellant told members of the appellee’s family that the appellee was in fact the father of her son. The testimony disclosed that on Christmas, 1968, the appellee gave a bicycle to the infant as a present.

Upon the conclusion of the appellant’s testimony, the trial court granted the appellee’s motion to dismiss the appellant’s complaint on the basis that the court could not take judicial notice of the normal period of gestation. Subsequent to the actual trial, but on the same day the trial had terminated (October 6, 1971), the appellee’s attorneys filed a motion for leave to strike their appearance and attached to the motion the written consent of their client. The judge signed an order allowing the appellee’s attorneys to strike their appearance. Thereafter, on the same day, 59 minutes after the judge had allowed the withdrawal of appellee’s attorneys, the appellant filed her order for an appeal to this Court.

Two days later, ³¹² appellant filed an answer to the motion for leave to strike appearance and simultaneously filed a motion to strike or rescind the order of court allowing appellee’s attorneys to strike their appearance. The trial judge declined to reconsider the motion of counsel to strike their appearance because the appellant had filed an appeal and thereby divested the trial judge of jurisdiction. Without regard to the question of judicial notice of the “normal period of gestation,” we shall reverse the decree and remand the case for a new trial for the reasons stated in Kimble v. Keefer, 11 Md. App. 48 , 272 A. 2d 668 (1971), wherein this Court, speaking through Chief Judge Murphy, said: “Paternity proceedings