Constructive Emancipation in New York Families

We’ve heard the stories of celebrity children emancipating from their parents in order to take control of the money they are making:  Actress, Drew Barrymore; Olympic gymnast, Dominque Moceanu; and Actor, MacCaulay Culkin, to name a few.  But, what about us regular folks?  Can the average child emancipate himself or herself from the control of his or her parents?

The New York Family Court Act, section 413, states that “Under the doctrine of constructive
emancipation, a parent’s obligation to support a child until he or she reaches age 21 may be suspended where the child, although not financially self sufficient, abandons that parent’s home without sufficient cause and withdraws from the parent’s control, refusing to comply with reasonable parental demands.”

The doctrine of constructive emancipation is applicable to an intact household or a divorced household where the non-custodial parent is paying child support. 

In the former situation, in the case of Roe v. Doe, the child withdrew from parental control by actually moving out of the parent’s home and moving in with a classmate.  The New York Court of Appeals held that where a child “voluntarily abandons the parent’s home for the purpose of seeking its fortune in the world or to avoid parental discipline and restraint [the child] forfeits the claim to support . . . To hold otherwise would allow, at least in the case before us, a minor of employable age to deliberately flout the legitimate mandates of her father while requiring that the latter support her in her decision to place herself beyond his effective control.”

In regards to child support obligations between a child and the non-residential parent, the child must refuse to have contact with the non-custodial parent and the parent must try to establish communication for a period of time.  Assuming the parent was not at fault for the breakdown in the relationship, the parent can move to terminate child support payments.  

In Commissioner of Social Services v. Jones-Gamble, the court opined, “The doctrine of constructive emancipation is also applicable to the noncustodial parent where the child unreasonably refuses all contact and visitation… The evidence adduced in this case clearly establishes that [the child] wants no relationship with her father. Indeed, she has told many people that her father died in the war. Despite his prior support payments there is essentially no parent-child relationship between them. To require the father to provide reimbursement for the support of a daughter who has renounced and abandoned him would clearly result in an injustice under the facts of this case.”

If you are looking to constructively emancipate your child, the Law Offices of JAY D. RAXENBERG can help. 
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