# Captain Kirk Hit with $170-Million Paternity Suit **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 30, 2016, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679 "2016-03-30T23:56:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/21 "2016-03-31T11:30:03Z")
> [@blue\_infinity](#): > > I don’t think anyone, including the OP, has actually read the article. > > This is not a paternity suit. The guy is suing because Shatner was mean to him on Facebook and Twitter. $170 million dollars worth of mean. ☹ The article says it is a paternity suit. It’s the title of the article. You have to further click on the PDF to see what exactly he is being sued for. The plaintiff seems like a nut. I don’t think there is much of a story here. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/22 "2016-03-31T11:44:53Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > But isn’t that pretty much the rule in most other countries like the US (allowing for 50 states with different laws)? After some specific point, biological parentage doesn’t matter. Waited until your kid was 10 to test the genetics and found out it’s not yours? Tough shit, you’re the father. In some states, it sort of works the other way too. It’s a law that goes back to before DNA tests, but it still stands. If a woman names a man as the father, and he accepts it without requesting a test, she can’t change her mind later. EXAMPLE: woman has affair with X while married to Y. Gets pregnant with X’s child. Y is father on birth certificate, and five years go by during which Y forms bond with child; woman wants divorce, and asks for full custody on the basis that Y is not “real” father. Wife is SOL. She named him the father; he is on the birth certificate, he IS the father. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/23 "2016-03-31T11:59:10Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Also, “Peter.” Lame. He can change both names at the same time, should’ve gone with “KHAAAAAAAN Shatner” (sic). I would have gone with something classy, like “Tiberius”. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/24 "2016-03-31T12:08:28Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > I would have gone with something classy, like “Tiberius”. Tiberius? thats the worst - lets name him after your father. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/25 "2016-03-31T12:09:26Z")
So it’s really more of one of those “fool sues for absurd amount of money on lame grounds” stories. > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > But isn’t that pretty much the rule in most other countries like the US (allowing for 50 states with different laws)? After some specific point, biological parentage doesn’t matter. Waited until your kid was 10 to test the genetics and found out it’s not yours? Tough shit, you’re the father. > [@RivkahChaya](#): > > In some states, it sort of works the other way too. It’s a law that goes back to before DNA tests, but it still stands. If a woman names a man as the father, and he accepts it without requesting a test, she can’t change her mind later. Right. The people involved/named are given a “window” to establish, contest or question putative paternity – but you gotta use it or lose it, and \*accept that doing so may/will antagonize \*the parties involved (as well as a segment of outside observers). ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/26 "2016-03-31T13:07:19Z")
This can’t be true, because: “Klingon bastard killed my son.” ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/27 "2016-03-31T13:42:28Z")
I didn’t look - but how old is the kid? Shatner’s pushing 80?? ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/28 "2016-03-31T14:09:25Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Even if the child was born out of wedlock and the father never acknowledged him? …even if he was born on Genesis & stabbed in the back by Christopher Lloyd… ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/29 "2016-03-31T14:10:49Z")
> [@simster](#): > > I didn’t look - but how old is the kid? Shatner’s pushing 80?? 1. Shatner’s 85. Unrelated, but- I didn’t realize that he and Nimoy weren’t speaking at the time of Nimoy’s death. This is by Shatner’s own admission in his book about Nimoy. Does anybody know what the falling out was about? ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/30 "2016-03-31T14:19:54Z")
Is the plaintiff light green? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/31 "2016-03-31T14:28:31Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > No, that’s not the reason private paternity testing is banned in France. The French have no problem with acknowledging that sometimes women lie, or with allowing individual men to accuse individual women of lying. > > The ban is based in the (IMO dubious) position that family relations are determined socially rather than biologically, so a man who voluntarily undertakes a paternal relationship with a child should not subsequently undermine it by questioning the child’s biological parentage. Does the ban only apply to such cases? If that’s the rationale, there’s no reason it would apply if a woman shows up with a kid the guy never saw before and claims that he’s the father. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/32 "2016-03-31T14:34:05Z")
> [@Folly](#): > > Is the plaintiff light green? He wants to be painted greener. $170M greener. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/33 "2016-03-31T14:40:27Z")
“Get us out of here, Scotty !” ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/34 "2016-03-31T14:45:36Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > So it’s really more of one of those “fool sues for absurd amount of money on lame grounds” stories. I think it’s more likely “nut sues for absurd amount of money.” ---
**Author:** ![edwards\_beard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@edwards\_beard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwards_beard)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/35 "2016-03-31T14:52:06Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > 1. Shatner’s 85. > > Unrelated, but- I didn’t realize that he and Nimoy weren’t speaking at the time of Nimoy’s death. This is by Shatner’s own admission in his book about Nimoy. Does anybody know what the falling out was about? According to an interview I listened to, Shatner doesn’t even know. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/36 "2016-03-31T14:53:25Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > So it’s really more of one of those “fool sues for absurd amount of money on lame grounds” stories. > Right. The people involved/named are given a “window” to establish, contest or question putative paternity – but you gotta use it or lose it, and \*accept that doing so may/will antagonize \*the parties involved (as well as a segment of outside observers). It used to be a lot harder to get a man’s name on a birth certificate if the couple isn’t married. When I was a candy-striper in the mid-1980, I was on a maternity floor for a while. A man needed a court order to be named father even if he was by his own acknowledgement the father, the couple lived together, and he was present for the birth-- heck, if he filled out all the paperwork, he couldn’t put his own name down as “father” without a court order. It’s different now. Aside from the marital presumption, if a man simply writes his own name down on the form for registering the birth, then he’s the father. The couple doesn’t have to be married. Any guy who is present at the birth sort of gets the marital presumption, because doctors and nurses don’t bother to ask if they are married. The only time a woman needs some kind of court order anymore is when the father is overseas in the military, and they are not married. Or, at least, that was true when my husband was stationed in Iraq and his roommate’s girlfriend was pregnant. He spent his leave getting the paperwork done. I said “Why didn’t he spend it getting married?” Apparently they wanted a big wedding after he got home. Good luck on that with a baby to take care of. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/37 "2016-03-31T17:23:22Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > “Get us out of here, Scotty !” “I’m giving her all I’ve got, Captain, but my poor engines just can’t take any more!!” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/38 "2016-03-31T17:34:06Z")
Being rude to him on social media is worth $170 million. So if I sent him a friend request and he doesn’t friend me or like any of my statuses, is that worth $50,000? Or $25,000 maybe? Cause I’m not a greedy man, I just want a new car. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/39 "2016-03-31T17:39:29Z")
Is the child green? ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679/40 "2016-03-31T17:49:40Z")
> [@YogSothoth](#): > > Is the child green? Only if his mother was an Orion slave girl. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/captain-kirk-hit-with-170-million-paternity-suit/750679.md?page=3)