Tidwell v. Booker

LAKE, Justice.

G.S. 49-2 provides that any parent, mother or father, who wilfully neglects or refuses to support his or her illegitimate child is guilty of a misdemeanor. This statute, in effect when Claudia Ann was conceived, imposed, both upon the plaintiff and the defendant, a duty to support the child. Its purpose is not to confer rights upon either the mother or the father but to protect the child and to protect the State against the child’s becoming a public charge. Prosecution of the alleged father for the violation of this statute may be initiated by the mother, but her joining therein…