July 18, 2006

            LANSING - Attorney General Mike Cox announced today that Dubay v Wells, Thomas and Cox, often described as "Roe v Wade for Men," has been dismissed. The lawsuit, filed by Matthew Dubay in the United States District Court at Bay City, claimed that Michigan's paternity law is unconstitutional because the father is compelled to pay child support even if he did not want the child to be born.

            "This is an important victory for the children of this state," said Cox. "Both parents have a clear responsibility for the support of their child, no matter the circumstances surrounding conception. The Court upheld that time-honored understanding today. Michigan will not become the state where parents can opt out of personal responsibility." 

            The United States District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, dismissed the Dubay v Wells case on Monday.  This case was a challenge to Michigan's Paternity Act, which requires a parent to pay child support.  Dubay was arguing that he could chose not to pay child support because he told the mother of the child while they were dating that he did not want a child.  Dubay filed the action against the Saginaw County Prosecutor for his enforcement of the Paternity Act.  Dubay also named the mother of the child as a defendant.  The Attorney General intervened in the case to uphold the Paternity Act and to protect Michigan's children. 

            In ruling in the Attorney General's favor, the Court stated that "[t]he fundamental flaw in Dubay's claim is that he fails to see that the State played no role in the conception or birth of the child in this case, or in the decisions that resulted in the birth of the child."  Thus the Court ruled that the State did not violate a constitutionally protected right to privacy that had been the underlying basis of his claim. 

            The Court relied upon a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals case that rejected the notion that some sense of fairness ought to allow biological fathers to avoid the financial responsibility of supporting a child as a proxy for the loss of control of the events that naturally flow from sexual activity.  Accordingly, the Court found that the Paternity Act did not violate the Equal Protection clauses of the Michigan and United States Constitutions either on its face or as applied to Dubay.  The Court dismissed all of Dubay's claims against all of the defendants.

            The Attorney General also requested that the Court find the case to be frivolous.  The court agreed, stating this action is "frivolous, unreasonable, and without foundation and seeks to advance a theory that is foreign to the legal principles on which it is ostensibly based."  The Court is allowing the Attorney General to submit a claim for his office's attorney fees.

            Since taking office in 2003, Attorney General Cox has made it a top priority to enforce Michigan's felony non-support laws and raise the awareness of the problem unpaid child support causes to children in the State of Michigan.  To date, $26,637,755.16 in unpaid child support has been collected, helping approximately 3,030 children.

            For more information, contact Rusty Hills or Nate Bailey, Attorney General's Office, at (517) 373-8060. 

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