For Oregon parents, it would be one of the worst nightmares they can imagine: finding out after 15 years that the child they have loved and raised is not their own. While many families in that situation would prefer to go on as if nothing has changed, some parents may feel cheated and seek for the biological parent to live up to his or her financial responsibilities.

A man in Connecticut will be able to sue his daughter's biological father for $190,000 - essentially, 15 years' worth of child support - after that state's Supreme Court ruled in his favor the week of Feb. 3. The unanimous ruling overturned a lower court decision that held that allowing the suit, and revealing to the daughter that the man who had helped raise her was not her biological father, would harm her emotional and financial well-being.

The man had been suspicious about his daughter's paternity almost from the moment of her birth. After the girl was born, she rode home in a limousine with her parents. Also along for the ride was a man described in media reports as the mother's close friend and business partner.

The man was a constant presence in the girl's life ever since. Suspecting the friend's interest in his daughter's life, in October 2006 the plaintiff secretly obtained a hair sample from her and had a paternity test performed. The test revealed that he was not the girl's biological father. The DNA results led the plaintiff and his wife to divorce. A second test confirmed that the mother's friend was indeed the girl's father.

He reportedly began paying child support immediately, but that did not satisfy the plaintiff, who sued him for nondisclosure, misrepresentation and unjust enrichment. The trial court dismissed the case and the plaintiff appealed. Now with the state Supreme Court decision, the man will have a second chance to pursue this unusual form of child support.

Source: ABC News, "Court Allows Man to Seek Money from 'Daughter's' Biological Dad," Christina Ng, Feb. 3, 2012