Nina Viola Montepagani

One child, two fathers?

One child, perhaps two fathers, many problems and questions.

Nina Viola Montepagani’s father was Joseph Viola, an illiterate Italian immigrant to America - or Sebastiano Raeli, a wealthy Italian doctor in Rome.

Between the two men is a fortune measured in tens of millions of dollars.

Joseph Viola (Montepagani is Nina's married name) died in New York in 1987. He was 95 and left a negligible estate

Sebastiano Raeli died in Italy in 2010. He was 91, married but apparently childless, and a multimillionaire who left his entire fortune to a Rome university. However, Italian law gives children a claim on their parents' estate regardless of the will.

Born in New York City in 1952, Nina Viola was raised by Joseph and Anna Viola. But if Dr Raeli is her biological daughter, and if she can prove it, she has a claim on perhaps half his estate.

Those two ifs are big ones, involving questions of scientific fact that then have to surmount legal hurdles. Besides, Nina's birth certificate cites Joseph as her father, and this fact has, thus far, prevented her from arguing her case in Italian courts. And her two attempts in New York courts to have Joseph's name removed from her birth certificate have been rejected.

Long ago, far away

Nina Viola Montepagani was born in Brooklyn, New York in October 1952. Unable to read or write, Joseph, her father, took jobs such as operating elevators. Nina became a school teacher and married a warehouseman. Now retired, Nina and her husband have grown children and live in upstate New York. Neither generation became wealthy.

Joseph had exceedingly bad and sad luck in his choice of brides. Nina’s mother, Anna, was Joseph’s second of four wives.

After Joseph settled in America, he decided to marry and, to find a bride, returned to his home village in Italy and returned to America with a wife.

She died young, so he went back to the old country and met, and married, Anna. They returned to America, where she promptly gave birth to Nina. She died of cancer five years later. Nina was their only child.

Joseph did what Joseph does when he wanted and needed a wife. Back to Italy for another bride, and after she died he found a fourth.

Despite three wives dying young in succession, there is no suggestion that Joseph was a serial wife-killer. The mystery surrounding Joseph, Anna, Nina and Dr Raeli concerns a small window of romantic opportunity.

Nina was born about nine months after her parents’ Italian marriage.

Nine months is perfectly kosher in maternal mathematics except that Anna did not travel back to America with her new husband after their wedding. She had to stay behind in Rome awaiting immigration documents. It took about a month for those documents to arrive.

A lot can happen in 31 days. Nina believes it might have happened between her mother and Dr Raeli, and various signs point to that intimacy. For example, Dr Raeli was present in Brooklyn when two-year-old Nina was christened (a photograph shows him holding the baby), and over the years he provided medical advice to members of the Viola family.

Nina is a nickname. Her full legal first name is Sebastiana, a near echo of Sebastiano, Dr Raeli’s first name.

Joseph carried a slip of paper in his wallet listing Dr Raeli's contact details in case of an emergency involving his daughter. Was this reliance on the man on the other side of the world based simply on the fact that he was a doctor and a family friend, or did Joseph know that Dr Raeli’s concern for Anna was genuinely, genetically paternal?

Although an ocean apart, the Violas and Dr Raeli maintained contact for several decades, and in letters and family visits, he seemed to acknowledge a special closeness to Nina. He was, himself, childless, and destined to remain so even after he married a woman nearly 20 years younger. He was 85 at the time.

Nice turns nasty

Warm relations suddenly froze when Dr Raeli's Italian lawyer informed Nina that his client firmly denied paternity. He further proposed to settle the matter one way or the other by having Nina take a DNA test in Italy. According to the New York Times, which broke this story, she declined, apparently afraid that the test would be rigged against her.

She then applied to an Italian court to argue that Dr Raeli was her biological father. The court said that it could not even begin to entertain the question as long as her birth certificate listed someone else (Joseph) as her father. So Nina applied to a New York court to get her birth certificate amended.

The New York judges examined evidence that included baby photographs (an extremely tiny baby might suggest a premature birth) and scientific evidence concerning human gestation. It concluded that the petitioner, Nina, “has not demonstrated that it was highly probable either that Raeli was petitioner's biological father, or that Joseph Viola was not petitioner's biological father. Accordingly, the presumption of legitimacy has not been rebutted.” Joseph’s name is still on her birth certificate.

During his lifetime, Dr Raeli gave generously to Tor Vergata University in Rome, sponsoring scholarships for needy students. The university also announced that it Dr and Mrs Raeli named the university as their sole beneficiary.

Still to be revealed are the contents of Dr Raeli’s will. Does he leave anything to his wife? He also has at least one other living relative, a nephew? Is he mentioned in the will or disinherited?

It is also not too late for DNA testing, although legal avenues may be shut tight on both sides of the pond.