A support magistrate in Manhattan’s Family Court acted outside the scope of her statutory authority by resolving “issues of contested paternity involving claims of equitable estoppel” and, as a result, the magistrate’s judgment that a man is the father of a child must be reversed, a state appeals court has ruled.

An Appellate Division, First Department, panel has decided that the man, referred to only as Travis S. in the opinion, is entitled to further proceedings regarding his apparent contesting of being the father of the child, for whom support is being sought.