In DHS v. Bell, 1998 ME 123, 711 A.2d 1292, 1296 (Me. 1998), the Law Court stated that equitable defenses would not bar recovery of child support "where the Department has not affirmatively misled the father to believe he would bear no responsibility." Neither waiver, laches, nor estoppel should bar the Department from collecting the amount due for six years of child support even though the father was not aware of his paternity until the child was seventeen years of age. Id. at 1295.