You are the father… And you are, too: A New Jersey man being sued for support payments on twins got a bit of a break when paternity tests revealed the children have two different fathers. It is only the third ruling of its kind in the United States.
The New Jersey Law Journal reports the case began when the mother, T.S., applied for benefits from A.S. and claimed he was the father of her 15-month-old twin daughters. However, she revealed during her testimony that she had another romantic partner within one week of her relations with A.S. After that confession, Judge Sohail Mohammed ordered a paternity test — which revealed the babies have different fathers.
“[The case is] novel in that I don’t think this issue was on anyone’s radar to even question a client about,” said a family law expert with the New Jersey State Bar Association.
Jennifer Wu, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, said this is an instance of superfecundation. She explained this occurs when a mother releases two eggs, which are fertilized at the same time by sperm from two different men. That is possible because sperm remains viable for up to five days. Although proven cases in the legal system are rare, a 1997 academic study found superfecundation actually happens in one in every 13,000 paternity cases involving twins.
In this instance, A.S. was ordered to pay $28 per week for the child he fathered. The other man has not been named.
