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The Connecticut
Supreme Court held that the trial court did have jurisdiction to
order child support pursuant to a divorce proceeding, even though
the man being ordered to pay was not the child's biological father.
The court reached this conclusion by looking to the recent decision
in Doe v. Doe, 244 Conn. 403 (1999), which held that the definition
of parentage no longer imposes jurisdiction limitations on the trial
court's power to enter custody orders in dissolution cases. The
court held that the trial court acted properly when it equitably
estoppped the defendant from denying paternity. This is noteworthy
since the Connecticut Supreme Court has never before found that
the doctrine of equitable estoppel to apply in dissolution proceedings.
The court in this case found the defendant induced the child and
the mother to rely detrimentally on his emotional and financial
support.
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