The 'unprecedented' paternity declaration means Colleen Tarr could have tried to claim a share of her half-brother's inheritance after he died without a will in 2020.
However, the woman, who never met her father and endured years of shame for being born out of wedlock, died in April this year.
The paternity declaration was made in August last year, but was released publicly by the Family Court this week.
It explains how another of Tarr's siblings objected to the statement because her father, Daniel Rogers, died in 1972 and it was simply too late to establish any family ties.
According to the verdict, Rogers' first wife bore him seven children and died during childbirth. Two of their children are still alive.
When Rogers remarried in 1938, he also employed a housekeeper named Elizabeth Clarkin, who gave birth to a daughter she named Colleen Tarr.
Tarr was born in 1936 and on her 18th birthday her aunt told her who her real father was.
However, during his lifetime she had no relationship with him and never discussed her origins with her mother.
As an adult, she knew where Rogers lived after finding his name in the phone book, but she never had the courage to contact him or anyone else in the family.
Around 2021, a friend helped Tarr conduct a do-it-yourself genealogy test that can be purchased from and then uploaded to Ancestry.com, which then matches the results with other potential relatives.
After uploading her results, she was invited to a family meeting in 2021 by Mick Rogers, the youngest surviving son of Daniel Rogers and his first wife, and she described the meeting as very successful.
Later, another of her half-brothers, Peter Rogers, visited her and told her that their brother Frank had died without a will in 2020.
Under the Status of Children Act, if the executor of someone's will is aware of potential claimants who have not established paternity, he must tell them that he has the right to try to legitimize that relationship through the courts.
Both Peter and Mick provided DNA samples which showed Tarr was 245,000 times more likely to be their sibling than not.
However, Frank's sister Frances Cotter opposed Tarr being named as a half-sibling, but died while the legal proceedings were still ongoing.
Cotter's attorney, Neville Woods, argued on behalf of his client that Rogers had been dead for more than 52 years and called the delay “unprecedented.”
Woods also argued that no evidence was presented to establish the alleged sexual relationship between Tarr's mother and Daniel Rogers, nor any comparisons of their physical appearance, nor any DNA from the man himself.
Woods said that because there was no actual relationship, in the form of love, affection, recognition, maintenance or any social or moral connection, and Tarr himself confirmed that in court.
However, Judge Belinda Pidwell said Woods' interpretation of the law was “draconian” and that the Status of Children Act was intended to remove social stigma.
“If a child seeking to establish paternity must establish a bond or connection with the alleged father in order to succeed, regardless of a biological link, then fathers could defend such requests by simply walking away from their offspring,” she said.
“Paternity declarations are emotional and go to the core of a person's identity, their sense of belonging, their whakapapa.”
Judge Pidwell said the case was initiated in part by the executor's obligations under the law, as well as Tarr's need to establish her identity and whakapapa in her final years.
As evidence, Tarr talked about how she felt living her life with the social stigma of being born out of wedlock, which was considered scandalous in the 1940s.
“… I have had a desire all my life. What would you have done? Your pride and rejection. You are afraid of both. What is now proven by rejection, what happens now; rejection,” Tarr said in her evidence before the court.
Judge Bidwell noted that the Status of Children Act was not passed into law until 1969, when Tarr was 34 years old. Until that law was passed, she had no legal recourse as an illegitimate child, and it wasn't until the 1980s that a paternity test became available.
“How can an adult be criticized for doing nothing if there is no legal recourse for half her life?” Judge Bidwell said this in her ruling.
“Colleen was naturally curious all her life, but felt unable to take legal action due to the constraints of the time.”
Judge Bidwell said the only reasonable interpretation based on the DNA evidence and her half-brothers' birth certificates was that Tarr was Daniel Rogers' natural daughter and had made a paternity order confirming this.
The family court could not decide whether paternity strengthened her inheritance claim against Frank Rogers' estate and Tarr has since died.
The daughter and a representative of Frances Cotter, who opposed Tarr's paternity declaration, told NZME in a statement through their counsel that they felt obliged to oppose the claim.
'We felt it right to fairly present the moral hazard to the Court in a long-delayed claim against a father who died long ago, when the applicant had lived her life in the area but chose not to visit or interact with him to talk to him when he was alive. ” reads their statement.
“The applicant [Tarr] relied on the DNA of half-brothers and sisters, without the DNA having been voluntarily provided by her mother or father. The applicant succeeded in the case and thus obtained the fruits of a large inheritance.
“Unfortunately, [Frances Cotter] died before the case was heard, and was thus deprived of the opportunity to have her speak directly to the Court in her own words. We are grateful to the Court for making its decision.”
Family lawyer, Lawyer for Child panel member and King's Counsel Vivienne Crawshaw said the ruling was unusual because of the amount of time that had passed since Tarr's father had died.
“I wonder if with the advent of DNA sharing we'll see some really interesting consequences and outcomes in children born out of wedlock,” she said.
“I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't the only case of its kind.”
Crawshaw said it was clear the impetus for the paternity declaration came from the Status of Children Act and it was nice to see her half-brothers helpful in sharing their DNA and helping her confirm her parentage.
– By Jeremy Wilkinson, Open Justice reporter