State v. Palmer

This is a paternity case.

The mother of a child born in July 1977 swore out a complaint in the juvenile court charging Palmer with being the child's father. The juvenile court adjudicated Palmer's paternity of the child and he appealed to the circuit court. Palmer filed a "plea in abatement" that, since October 1976, the child's mother had been married to Ikner and that, as to the issues in the case, she was married to Ikner at all pertinent times.1 The learned circuit court granted Palmer's plea in abatement and dismissed the case. The State appealed.

For over a century, a married woman, as a…