Determining a parent's obligation to support a child in California is pretty cut and dry in most cases. However, as the parties in a recent published case learned, determining a parent's obligation to pay child support for an adult child will usually depend on the particular facts of the case.

In Marriage of Edwards, a family court determined that a father's obligation to pay support to his ex-wife continued, even though the child was an adult and was attending a state university. The parties had previously stipulated that the father would continue to pay child support after the child became an adult and agreed to split the child's college tuition. Under California law, the father's obligation to pay child support would have ended when their son attained the age of 18 and graduated high school. But for reasons not mentioned within the decision, he agreed to pay child support until their son reached the age of 25.

Several years after entering into the agreement, the father filed an Order to Show Cause for modification of the child support order, arguing that it was unjust and inappropriate for him to continue to have to pay support, since he had a significant decrease in income and the child was not living with the mother. Furthermore, the father argued that the child was not longer in the care and custody of the mother, since he lived at the university and had received a sizeable financial aid packet from the state.

Mother, on the other hand, argued that their adult son was still within her primary care, given that the son's "stuff" was still at her house, he used the house to receive mail, he listed the house as his address to the university, and he came home for extended visits during the school's breaks. Consequently, the mother argued that it was not unjust or inappropriate for the court to order the father to continue to pay guideline child support.

The family court agreed with the mother and refused to depart from the guideline formula for calculating child support. The lower court found that there was no change of circumstances, warranting a departure from the guideline formula. The court proceeded to calculate child support based on the guideline formula and lowered the child support payment, based on father's decreased income. However, the court granted the mother 100 percent timeshare of the adult child, which is a significant factor in California, as the amount of time a parent has responsibility for a child impacts the amount of child support to be paid. Obviously, the lower court had bought into mother's argument that she had primary care and responsibility of the adult child.

Fortunately for the father, the Court of Appeal was not persuaded by mom's argument, and reversed the lower court's decision to order guideline child support. The Court of Appeal agreed held that ordering guideline child support under the circumstances would be unjust and inappropriate. Furthermore, based on the facts presented, the court specifically found that the adult child was not in the mother's primary care and responsibility.

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