Quote:
Originally posted by duchessusa
Request info on a child who is now 29 years old, but is unmarried and has become disabled. What does this mean in terms of support? Who is responsible************** the state? the parents? How does this work?
Is she entitled to a Military I.D. card now? She has been legally declared disabled. We reside in CA and she is in WA. |
My response:
I don't know how it works in Washington State, but I imagine that in this regard, it's fairly similar to California. If the "adult, disabled, child" were here in California, an adult child is owed a California Family Code § 3910(a) support duty only if he or she is both "incapacitated from earning a living" and "without sufficient means" for the rest of his / her life. Recognizing that the statutory purpose is to protect the public from the burden of supporting a person whose parents are able to do so, the question of "sufficient means" is to be resolved in terms of the likelihood the child will become a public charge. [Marriage of Drake (1997) 53 Cal.App.4th 1139, 1154, 62 Cal.Rptr.2d 466, 476--"parent's duty to support an adult child does not arise only when the child would otherwise be 'turned into the street'"]
California cases conclude a child is "incapacitated from earning a living" for § 3910(a) support purposes only upon proof of a mental or physical disability preventing the child from being able to work; or, at least proof of inability to find a job due to factors beyond the child's control. [Jones v. Jones (1986) 179 Cal.App.3d 1011, 1014-1015, 225 Cal.Rptr. 95, 97; see Marriage of Drake, supra (chronic paranoid schizophrenia); Chun v. Chun, supra ("emotionally disabled" adult child with 12-year-old maturity level); Farber v. Olkon (1953) 40 Cal.2d 503, 254 P.2d 520 (mentally ill); Woolams v. Woolams (1952) 115 Cal.App.2d 1, 251 P.2d 392 (paralysis); and cases cited in Rebensdorf II v. Rebensdorf (1985) 169 Cal.App.3d 138, 146, 215 Cal.Rptr. 76, 80-81 (J. Franson dissent. opn.)]
Inability to pay for college education not enough: An adult child unable to pay for a college education without the parents' help is not, by that fact alone, "incapacitated from earning a living" and "without sufficient means" so as to trigger a parental support obligation under § 3910(a). Presently, there is no statutory authority by which adult children--who are not physically or mentally disabled--can compel their parents to pay for their college education. [Jones v. Jones, supra] (However, a parent's payment of an adult child's college expenses--albeit without legal obligation to do so--can be considered in setting spousal support. See, e.g., Marriage of Epstein (1979) 24 Cal.3d 76, 90, 154 Cal.Rptr. 413, 422; Marriage of Paul (1985) 173 Cal.App.3d 913, 919-920, 219 Cal.Rptr. 318, 321-322)
Good luck to you.
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