Tremayne Scoggins v. Evon M. Medlock

Summary

The court affirmed dismissal of Scoggins’s petition to establish paternity of his deceased child because the governing statute authorizes scientific testing when the mother or putative father is deceased, but contains no provision for testing when the child is deceased. Applying the statute’s plain meaning and expressio unius, the court declined to add an omitted procedure and concluded that Scoggins could not establish the legal status necessary to participate in the wrongful-death recovery. Chief Justice Hannah, dissenting and joined by Special Justice Belew, would have harmonized the paternity and wrongful-death statutes and allowed the circuit court to determine paternity.