Opinion ID: 1469483
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Uniform Civil Liability for Support Act

Text: The plaintiff-appellee, however, argues in support of the orders of the District Court, as affirmed by the Superior Court on appeal, that the Uniform Civil Liability for Support Act (19 M.R.S.A., §§ 441-453) adopted in this State in 1955 so modified the common law rule of majority respecting support of children by their parents that it amended the jurisdiction of the divorce court accordingly. We disagree. [3] The Uniform Act provides: (Section 442) Every man shall support his wife and his child; and his parent when in need. (Section 441.1) `Child' means a son or daughter under the age of 21 years and a son or daughter of whatever age who is incapacitated from earning a living and without sufficient means. (Emphasis supplied) (Section 441.2) `Obligee' means any person to whom a duty of support is owed. (Section 445) The Superior Court and the District Court shall have jurisdiction of all proceedings brought under this subchapter. (Section 451) The rights created by this subchapter are in addition to and not in substitution for any other rights. (Emphasis added) The Uniform Civil Liability for Support Act, as the quoted sections clearly indicate, provides a comprehensive additional method of enforcing a parent's general duty of support and specifically gives jurisdiction of all proceedings brought under the Act to the Superior Court and the District Court. It does not purport to extend the jurisdiction of said courts in matters of divorce or of support of children of divorced parents beyond majority even though physically or mentally incapacitated. The divorce act expressly limits the wife's right to support of the children of the parties to the period of their minority, since it provides that the decree of the court shall remain in force as to each child until that child reaches majority. On the other hand, the Uniform Civil Liability for Support Act does not limit a father's legal obligation to support his children until majority, but expands the same in favor of a son or daughter of whatever age who is incapacitated from earning a living and without sufficient means. Under the Act, however, the father's duty to support his incapacitated adult daughter is a right given to the obligee, who is the daughter herself to whom the duty of support is owed. Indeed, by Section 448 of the Act the right to enforce the duty of support against the obligor is vested in the obligee, except that the State or any political subdivision thereof may proceed to do so on behalf of the obligee. The statute does not grant the ex-wife the right to enforce against the father his obligation to support his adult incapacitated child on behalf of the child, let alone on behalf of herself as the beneficiary of a support order from the divorce court. While the Uniform Civil Liability for Support Act extends the common law duty of a parent to support his incapacitated child beyond the age of majority, we hold that, in the absence of a specific statutory enabling provision giving the Superior Court or the District Court the power in making an order of divorce to order additionally, either in the original proceeding or in any supplemental proceeding therein, for the support of children over the age of minority, the wife herself is unable to enforce such duty of support of their incapacitated child beyond majority through any decree of the divorce court. Such a right may not be enforced by one parent against the other in the divorce court, but rests with the child to be enforced in a proceeding separate from the divorce case. O'Hair v. O'Hair, 1972, 16 Ariz.App. 565, 494 P.2d 765, 773. The entry will be Appeal sustained. Case remanded to the Superior Court for the entry in that Court of an order sustaining the defendant's appeal from the District Court and remanding the case to the District Court for the District Court to dismiss the plaintiff's motion for contempt and arrearage filed in that Court against the defendant under date of June 26, 1973.