The wrong father

[Gettingbysomehow]

This is theoretical because I never received maintenance of any kind from either of my "fathers".
My mother had two boyfriends, didn't know which one was the father. Both decided they didn't want to be dads and left. This was a long time ago.
Mother decided it must be father 2 as she had only had sex with father 1 once.
She was wrong.
I did a DNA test many years later and it was in fact father 1.
If the wrong father paid maintenance for me and then found out he wasn't the dad years later could he legally claim all that money back?
Can I claim any money from my actual father's estate? He died recently apparently.

Why shouldn't she? He abandoned her and her mother and never paid a penny towards them, of course she should claim her inheritance!

You can’t say that with any certainty.
He may have left a will directing his money otherwise, we don’t know what country / legal system he lived under etc etc.

Oh I thought one paid maintenance apologies

She might have done it with Father 2 to exclude him and conclude it was Father 1?

Abandoned?

Op says he didn’t know she existed. How can you abandon a baby you don’t know exists.

are you suggesting men should locate every woman they have slept with 9-10 months after they last had sex to double check?

The fault here is with the mother

This.

Morally, he doesn't owe you anything. If he didn't know you existed, he couldn't have paid maintenance. However, legally, the above post is right and you might have a claim if he died intestate or his will doesn't specifically name his children.

I am always fascinated by people who decide to be incredibly unpleasant to an OP but can’t even be bothered to properly read the post before doing so. If you are going to be nasty, at least make sure you have your facts straight first people!

The "wrong father" could sue your mother for the maintenance paid. There have certainly been cases in the past although other factors were present (e.g. one woman had an affair throughout the marriage and both her children were not the husband's. She had to pay compensation both for the maintenance and damages). However, the outcome is far from certain.

Your claim on the "right father's" estate might depend on whether he died intestate or otherwise how his will is written. If he died intestate, then as a biological child you will have the same claim as other children to the will (which is a share of half of the residue after the spouse's legal claim). If he had a will, then if the wording is "my children" or similar you will share in the claim. Otherwise, probably not. I guess you could make a belated claim for maintenance under the '75 act but I don't know of any cases, let alone successful ones!

To be fair to him we don’t know the full story.

It sounds like the mum lied or wasn’t interested in finding out the truth.

Of course things were more difficult back then with things like DNA.

Can OP be certain there isn't a father 3?

I don’t know about the legal side of things for the will.

But you would need to prove you are his child.
If he has other children you can do sibling DNA.

The fact that you’re not this other man’s child, doesn’t mean you are definitely this man’s (as anyone could say that about anyone after they’d died).

Did you not think to do a DNA test when he was alive?
If seems a shame as if you knew you could have possibly got a lot of answers when he was alive.

I would imagine OP has done a test on 23andMe or similar and either father 1 or one of his immediate family have come up as a dna match on their database.

I don think you can vilify someone for not paying maintenance on a child they didn’t know existed
again h it f your mums choice not to pursue CM for the dad left her in poverty then that was a result of her choice

personally I wouldn’t be comfortable claiming from his estate if I were u

I did an An ancestry DNA looking for something else and found my siblings and some cousins. It was a shock as I thought my father was the other guy who lives abroad. Spoke to one of them and confirmed the link.

I think that if you have irrefutable evidence that he is your dad, then of course you should make a claim. Why wouldn't you?

I should say I want absolutely nothing from him and no way could be bothered with all the legal hassle but my adult DS has questions. I knew nothing about the very existence of father 1 untiI I did the ancestry test so it was a big shock finding out this man existed at all.
My half siblings are on there so I contacted them and we eventually figured it out. It was not a happy reunion as their dad was married to their mother when I was conceived.
I went on ancestry to look for the various 1800 census for my family tree not a father I didn't know existed.
My son and I don't need their money we have our own homes a d good jobs but we were really curious about the legal implications in cases like this as there must be so many.
Sorry I wasn't more clear on my original post.

Basically because I made my own fortune and have a nice house as does DS but felt sorry for my poor mum living in poverty for years. She's married now and happy living abroad.

Thought OP said both men decided they didn't want to be dad's and fucked off. Sends like they knew she existed but weren't interested.

Because an ancestry DNA test is no-where near the standard of irrefutable proof, it would have to be a proper DNA test taken under conditions that will be accepted by a court

Abandoned by father 2. He ran off. My mum told him he was the dad but he wasn't. Father 1 dumped mother after a few dates and never knew I existed. Haha I've made a right hash of this post. I'm better when I'm typing on the PC my phone is too small.
I have a vague recollection that if you were illegitimate in the 60s you could not claim on any estates but surely that must have changed now?

Thanks that's useful.

Yes. Siblings. We eventually worked out what happened and where everyone was on the dates I was conceived.

I wanted to meet up with the siblings but they are not keen. It certainly isn't a joyous reunion like the DNA programmes on TV.

Op said in her second post that he didn’t know she existed

Oh I missed that bit!