[PARENTING] Teen Sues Parents for Cash, College Tuition

All her friends get supported by their parents until they're in their 30s, why shouldn't she?

Congratulations, upper-middle class parents, these are the self-entitled monsters you have created.

 

feel sorry for the kids this Jersey trash will spawn...and talk about that f'd up friend and family, financing the lawsuit...I hope a circuit Judge makes an example of this POS kid...

 

The school probably has a case to collect the remaining tuition from the parents, but I don't see that the kid has any standing. The college fund might be up for grabs depending on the vehicle used -- if it's set up in a trust in her name with parents named as trustees, then they might have to hand it over according to the agreeements. If it's just a savings account, she wouldn't have a claim. So, she might have something, but not much.

I don't think that holds water. A rationale for alimony (and not all states even do alimony, remember) is that one spouse has made the career attainment of the other possible with her contributions to running the household -- an investment in the other person that should be repaid. Kids haven't contributed in that way or made any sacrifice to their own ability to earn their own income for the sake of the parents (usually).

 

As trustees, they manage the funds. She may have been accepted to college, but she hasn't started accruing expenses, so no disbursements should be made. I hope somebody revives this thread when it comes to a conclusion, to know the outcome.

 

Because she's not a kid. 18 years old. Legal adult.

 

hey, what does this mean? Wtf, man. I'm not even white but getting pretty sick and tired of all this anti white.

 

divorced women are legal adults also... and they probably have more skills and could provide for themselves better than an 18 year old.

 

It's a Jersey thing.

 

very true. The stereotypical hispanic immigrant would be doing just fine... collecting social security on her 4 kids from 3 different fathers.

 

The only possible hook they could hang on is that colleges and DofEd consider a parents' income and tax returns for any financial aid up to a certain age. Otherwise I don't see how a parent could be legally obligated; especially considering all the legal autonomy and privacy college students get with regards to grades et al.

I'd personally withhold judgement because I don't know that most kids expect to be completely cut off and without a home at 18. Also they could unwittingly be turning out another hooker on to the world.

 

But there's no divorce here. The parents have no legal obligation to provide for her once she's an adult. They are, in effect, two wholly separate legal entities. Whereas a married couple are legally bound to each other.

 

nice thread title - Parenting.

 

An update, though the title is misleading. The judge denied the request to have the parents pay immediately while the case is getting worked out, but they make it sound like she's gotten shut out, which she hasn't (yet).

[rquoter]Rachel Canning Loses Effort to Make Parents Pay High School Tuition
March 4, 2014

By ENJOLI FRANCIS, RYAN SMITH and AARON KATERSKY

Aaron Katersky
Correspondent, ABC News via Good Morning America

A New Jersey family court judge ruled today that Rachel Canning's parents do not have to pay her high school tuition after she sued them to cover her schooling and living costs.

The judge delayed a ruling on whether the parents must pay the 18-year-old student's college tuition while asking lawyers to consider whether it's wise to "establish precedent where parents live in fear of establishing rules of the house?"

The judge also denied her request for weekly allowance and additional financial support including attorney fees.

The next hearing is scheduled for April 22.

The New Jersey family was in court today with the teenage daughter facing off against her parents in a battle to get them to pay for her schooling and living costs even though she's 18.

Rachel Canning, who stared straight ahead for most of the hearing, is suing her parents in family court in Morristown, N.J., because she says they refuse to pay for her Catholic high school education and for college in the fall.

She claims that her parents, Sean and Elizabeth Canning, kicked her out of their Lincoln Park house when she turned 18 in October, which they deny. Dad Sean Canning says she left voluntarily because she didn't want to follow their house rules concerning curfew and chores.

"Private school, new car, college education; that all comes with living under our roof," he told ABC News station WABC-TV.

His lawyer, reading from a statement before the start of this afternoon's hearing, said the Cannings "are distraught that their oldest daughter feels that litigation is a better option than living together as a family."

"To be clear, my clients never abandoned nor abused their child and they have asked her to come home," Laurie Rush-Masuret said.

The judge said today that he wished more energy would be spent on reuniting the family than keeping it apart.

The young woman laid eyes on her parents for the first time in five months, listening to her lawyer accuse her parents in court of leaving Rachel Canning with nothing and painting the "most disgusting picture of their daughter" to get out of paying her tuition.

It was the first time the parents had seen their estranged daughter, 18, since she moved out in October.

"Why can't she go home?" the New Jersey family court judge asked.

"Her home life is an "abusive unhealthy situation," the teen's attorney, Tanya Helfand, replied.

Rachel Canning, an honor student and athlete at Morris Catholic High School, filed the lawsuit days ago and is asking a judge to declare her dependent on her parents for support as a student, according to The Daily Record.

The newspaper said Rachel Canning was asking that her parents settle a $5,306 tuition bill and pay living and transportation costs, as well as "commit" to an existing college fund.

Rachel Canning said in court documents, "My parents simply will not help me any longer. They want nothing to do with me and refuse to even help me financially outside the home although they certainly have the ability to do so. … I am unable to support myself and provide for my food, shelter, clothing, transportation and education."

Steve Mindel, a family law specialist with no connection to the case, said, "This is a case that is totally unusual."

The Daily Record also reported that Rachel Canning had been living with her best friend's family. John Inglesino, the friend's father and a lawyer, is reportedly funding Rachel Canning's lawsuit but is not representing her. Inglesino declined to comment to ABC News.

He has reportedly said he wants her parents to foot the bill for legal fees as well, which now total $13,000.

Sean Canning, a former New Jersey police chief, said the ordeal was tearing his family apart.

"We'd be whole and healed as a family if she were back home," he said. "And I think she's being enabled. I think she's being steered down the wrong area and it's killing us."

Rachel Canning has not responded to ABC News' request for comment.

Today's scheduled court hearing will mark the first time the father and daughter see each other since October 2013.

"I don't know," Sean Canning said. "It's going to be very tough." [/rquoter]

 

She kinda looks like Lance Berkman.

 

It seems like most here are on the side of the parents, that the girl in question is being entitled and the suit has no merit...

But I did wonder if that opinion would change if the boyfriend she was told not to see anymore was Black/Hispanic/Asian, and her parents thought that minorities were bad influences?

Would it make a difference if it was a girlfriend her parents had a problem with, and one of the conditions of living under her parents' roof was to not be gay?

Would it make a difference if her name was Ray, and despite indicating her intent to transition from male to female, her parents insisted on her living as a male?

Don't think it changes anything, considering some of the horror stories that you hear about kids coming out to their parents and getting thrown out, with nary a lawsuit. Just though that it was an interesting exercise to think about how my perception changed when running through such hypotheticals.

 

Or what if she had balls?