By Victoria Cavaliere
March 4 (Reuters) – A New Jersey student who says her
parents abandoned her when she turned 18 is suing them for
school costs and other expenses in a case legal experts say
could set a precedent for a family’s obligation to support a
child who has left home.
Rachel Canning, 18, of Lincoln Park, New Jersey, wants her
parents to pay the remaining $5,000 in tuition to the Catholic
high school where she is a senior and seeks access to a college
fund and repayment of her legal fees, court documents show.
A cheerleader and lacrosse player at Morris Catholic High
School, Canning claims her parents kicked her out of the house
in November 2013 after she turned 18, the age of legal
adulthood. She wound up living with a friend’s family, she said,
and the upheaval has jeopardized her educational future.
Her parents, Sean and Elizabeth Canning, said their daughter
left home voluntarily late last year because she did not want to
follow the rules of the house, including doing chores and
adhering to curfew, according to court papers.
Rachel Canning filed a lawsuit last week claiming that she
is still dependent on her parents for support because she is
still in school and not yet legally emancipated under New Jersey
State law. In New Jersey, emancipation is not contingent on
becoming a legal adult at the age of 18, but instead requires a
young person to obtain “an independent status on his or her own”
– such as graduation from college, obtainment of employment or
marriage.
Family law experts in New Jersey say Canning’s case might
set legal parameters on whether non-divorced parents in the
state are obligated to pay for their children’s college
education and provide other financial support after the child
has left home.
New Jersey is one of several states that require divorced
parents to pay for their children’s education through college,
or legal emancipation, said William Laufer, a family law expert
in New Jersey. So far, there is no parallel decision for intact
families.
“This case is certainly unique,” Laufer said. “The question
is, a kid at the age of 18 says he or she is moving out of the
house – do parents have a legal obligation to support their kids
until emancipation?”
Lawyers for both sides did not return phone calls seeking
comment about the case, which will be heard on Tuesday afternoon
by a judge in Morris County Courthouse in New Jersey.
Sean Canning, a former police chief in Lincoln Park, told
local television station WCBS-TV on Monday he was “dumbfounded”
that he was being sued by one of his three daughters.
He called Rachel “rebellious” and said her college fund was
not in jeopardy.
“We have a college that’s available to her – there’s no
doubt about that. But it’s the equivalent of going shopping at
a high-end store and sending somebody the bill,” he told the
station.
(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Gunna Dickson)
