A man who has denied fathering a baby has lodged an appeal against a magistrates' order to take a paternity test.
The putative father of the 19-month-old appeared before Chief Justice Sir Michael Barnett on Thursday to challenge the order of Family Court Magistrate Ellen Serville.
The man's lawyer, Raphael Moxey, argued that the magistrate should not have made the order until she had heard all of the facts of the case.
Romona Farquharson-Seymour, who appeared for the mother, countered that the appeal should fail because Moxey acknowledged that the magistrate had the power to make the order.
Farquharson-Seymour submitted that the court was able to exercise its discretion at any stage of the proceedings.
The court reserved its decision on the issue.
In another appeal emanating from the Family Court, a man has challenged a magistrate's order that he pay private school fees for his daughter who was born out of wedlock.
Farquharson-Seymour represented the man, whose daughter was attending Jordan Prince Williams when her mother moved her to Temple Fellowship School without consulting him. The court heard that the mother moved the child, although her father had already paid her tuition a year in advance.
Farquharson-Seymour said that although there is a commonly held view that private schools are superior to public ones, there is nothing to show that the child's welfare would be threatened by attending a public school.
The mother's lawyer, Clarita Lockhart, asked the chief justice to alter the January 2011 order of Magistrate Carolyn Vogt-Evans so that the fees would be paid at the original school.
However, Farquharson-Seymour said the man was no longer in a position to pay tuition at any school because of a change in his circumstances.
Chief Justice Sir Michael Barnett has also reserved his ruling in that case.

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