Dowa Case Analysis | Adult Child Successfully Claims 280,000 Yuan in Child Support from Parents During Minor Years

Summary of the Case

The parents (our party) were registered as married in 1994. The plaintiff was born in December 1999. After the plaintiff was born, a romantic dispute arose between the parents, and the defendant (the plaintiff's father) expelled the mother and daughter from the home and went missing. Since then, the parents have been officially separated, and the plaintiff's mother has been living alone with the plaintiff in their hometown.

During this period, the plaintiff's mother repeatedly proposed to move back to Shenzhen with the plaintiff for living and studying, and requested the defendant to pay the plaintiff's maintenance fees for living, education, medical care, etc., but was refused.

The defendant has always had a stable job, income, and investment returns, and has rented out the jointly-owned property with the plaintiff's mother for a long time. During the marriage, he also frequently gave valuable jewelry, clothing, and even purchased multiple properties for an extramarital third party, but he never paid the plaintiff's maintenance fees. At the time of divorce, the defendant also did not agree to pay the previous maintenance fees for the child.

Key Issues

1. Has the plaintiff's claim for maintenance fees during his minority expired the statute of limitations now that he is an adult?

2. Should the defendant pay the plaintiff's maintenance fees during his minority?

The Court's Viewpoint

The first-instance court held:

“Children who cannot live independently” refers to adult children who are still in school receiving high school or lower education, or who have lost or have not yet fully lost their ability to work due to non-subjective reasons and are unable to maintain a normal life. According to the legislative purpose of our country's Marriage Law and relevant judicial interpretations, the parents bear the responsibility for their children's maintenance fees mainly to maintain the basic living standards of minors and children who cannot live independently, to ensure their basic survival and the right to education, and to ensure their healthy growth. Therefore, the legal nature of maintenance fees is different from that of ordinary debts. After the children become adults, the basis for paying maintenance fees no longer exists, and the children cannot claim the maintenance fees that their parents should have borne during their minority. In this case, the plaintiff is now an adult and has not submitted evidence to prove that he belongs to the “children who cannot live independently” as defined by law. Therefore, the plaintiff's request for his father to pay the maintenance fees before he turned 18 has no legal basis, and the court does not support it.

The second-instance court held:

This court believes that this case is a dispute over maintenance fees, and the claim for payment of maintenance fees is not subject to the provisions of the statute of limitations. The appellant (the plaintiff, our party) has requested the father to pay the maintenance fees during his minority, and his lawsuit meets the legal conditions. The court should conduct a substantive review of this matter. Both parties have confirmed that the appellant has been living with his mother in the hometown since February 2001, while the respondent (the defendant, the father) has been living in Shenzhen. Therefore, the appellant's claim that the respondent should pay the maintenance fees for his living and education during his minority is justified. ... The appellant was only two years old when he returned to the hometown in February 2001, and he lived and studied there for 16 years until he turned 18. Considering the average consumption level over the 16 years, combined with the respondent's self-reported income, it is determined that the respondent should pay the appellant a maintenance fee of 1500 yuan per month. Therefore, the respondent should pay a total of 288,000 yuan in maintenance fees.

Case Outcome: Our Party Wins

First-instance judgment:

The court dismisses all the plaintiff's claims.

Second-instance judgment:

1. Overturn the judgment of the People's Court of Nanshan District, Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province (2018)粤0305 Minchu *** Civil Judgment;

2. The respondent shall pay the appellant a maintenance fee of 288,000 yuan within ten days from the date of this judgment.

Conclusion by the Attorneys Handling the Case

This case is a very typical case of an adult child seeking maintenance fees from his parents during his minority. The parents have been separated for many years, and the mother has raised the child alone. Throughout the child's growth, the father not only failed to provide any emotional care but also never paid the maintenance fees. Such a situation has continued from the child's birth until adulthood, which is very touching.

In practice, when the child is young, the party directly caring for the child needs to take care of and accompany the child alone, while also bearing the child's maintenance fees with his or her own efforts. At this time, it is difficult for the party directly caring for the child to have the time and energy to claim maintenance fees from the other party on behalf of the child, and it can only be left for the child to claim the maintenance fees from the father or mother after he or she becomes an adult. At this time, a difficult problem often arises: whether an adult child can claim maintenance fees from his or her parents? This is the focal point of the dispute in this case and the fundamental reason why this case has become typical.

Therefore, during the litigation process, we have made profound arguments from both emotional and legal perspectives, and finally, the second-instance court recognized our team's views, thus determining that it is legally permissible for adult children to claim maintenance fees from their parents during their minority.

The father clearly had the ability to provide maintenance, but he ignored the child for many years. Added to the hardships the mother endured in raising the child alone, the child is likely to develop a resentful attitude towards the father, leading to impulsive behavior. In such cases, it is very necessary to seek the help of a professional lawyer. With the guidance and assistance of a lawyer, pursuing maintenance fees from the father who did not bear the responsibility of maintenance through legal channels is a wise choice. Of course, the mother has kept records of the child's education and living conditions, which also provide favorable guarantees for the child to secure his or her legal rights.