New York Divorce Law...

New York Law - Until What Age Does Child Support Typically Run?

Child support is paid until either:

• The child is "emancipated" (that is, is self-supporting usually outside the parents' home); or
• The child reaches age 21.

Section 236B.1.f.

Cases:

Saxton v. Saxton, 1999 N.Y. Slip Op. 10561, Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, New York, Decided December 9, 1999.

The couple moved from Maryland, where the court had said child support would run until age 18. The wife appealed in New York, and the court said that child support must run until age 21. The court applied New York law, because the parties were now living in New York.

Bogin v. Goodrich, 1999 N.Y. Slip Op. 08917, Oct. 28, 1999.

The court found that a child could return from "emancipated" status to "child" status.

The parties in this case divorced in 1984, when the couple's daughter was about five years old.

The daughter left the mother's home in October, 1996, at age 17. She moved out of state and lived with her half-sister and brother-in-law. A court declared that she was emancipated, presumably because she had taken herself out of her parents' control.

About seven months later, after she graduated high school, she moved back in with her mother. While living with her mother, she worked part time and even, for some period, full time.

She lived with her mother for almost another year, starting in May, 1997. She left again in mid-April, 1998. During this period, in October 1997, the mother filed a request for support to resume.

The parties agreed that after April, 1998, she was emancipated, and that when she lived with her half-sister during high school she was emancipated. But they disputed whether she was emancipated when she returned to her mother's home after high school.

In summary, here is a time line of this case:

1979 - Angela born October, 1996 - Angela moves out of state with her half-sister May, 1997 - Angela returns to NY and moves back in with mother Oct 7, 1997 - Mother files petition for reinstatement of support Dec, 1997 - Judge's order that Angela is no longer emancipated April 16, 1998 - Angela leaves mother's home again October 28, 1999 - Judge's order is confirmed in this case

The judge decided that it was possible for the daughter to, in effect, become un-emancipated after having been emancipated.

The court looked at her part time and brief full-time work experience and concluded that it did not add up to emancipation. The court noted that the mother had continued to pay the daughter's food, clothing, rent and utilities during that period, as well as covering various of the daughter's miscellaneous expenses.

And so, the judge ruled that the father had to pay child support for the six-month period after the mother requested that support resume.

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