In Re Estate of Carlton Elliott Walton, Deceased, Jeffrey O. Walton v. Leslie…

Summary

The Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals, which had concluded on de novo review that Leslie Young was the biological child of the intestate decedent Carlton Elliott Walton. Affirming the trial court, the Court held that Young failed to establish paternity by the clear and convincing proof required by Tenn. Code Ann. § 31-2-105(a)(2)(B), stressing that the evidence was equivocal on every significant issue, rested critically on the impeached credibility of the mother, and did not preponderate against the trial court's finding. The Court identified but expressly declined to decide whether a child whose mother was married at conception and birth qualifies as 'born out of wedlock' under the statute, since the proof failed regardless. No separate opinions were filed.