child support and parental alienation

[stoopid1]

Hi everyone, Just had a question about child support. I was wondering if a child (14years) wants nothing to do with the paying parent and has continually said to just go away and stay out of my life and so on due to parental alienation from the other parent, would the child support guidelines still apply to the alienated parent?
thanks, stoopchild

[AnnainOntario]

Absolutely. Child support has nothing to do with whether a child sees his parent or not. It is to support the childs needs, such as food and shelter. The receiving parent could also ask for more than the guidelines if extra costs occur such as medical or if the child was younger, caregiving costs.

[FL_Needs_To_Change]

There have been cases where a child unilaterally terminated access and the CS was either terminated or significantly reduced.
However, when a parent chooses to unilaterally terminate access, this is not the case, full CS is still paid along with any extra costs.

I'll try to find some case law for reference and add them.

[FL_Needs_To_Change]

In Marsland v. Gibb 2000 BCSC 471 (CanLII), (2000), 5 R.F.L. (5th) 406 (B.C.S.C.), Romilly J. of the British Columbia Supreme Court also found that an adult daughter who had unilaterally terminated her relationship with her father since she was 11 years old for no apparent reason and continued to do so in her adult years could no longer be considered to be a child of the marriage.

http://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc...anlii2048.html
from this link,
Cs was terminated, the child was seeking support from both parents, mom and dad, he was considered an adult ).
Both granted termination of support, based on among other things, unilateral termination of access by the child of the marriage.

[FL_Needs_To_Change]

Professor James G. McLeod in his critique of this decision appeared to support the rationale of Justice Fleury in Law v. Law when, at page 418, he wrote as follows:


So long as the children’s needs will not suffer, a court should consider removing the child support burden in whole or part and shifting it to the custodial parent in the face of a consistent and wilful refusal to facilitate access. If there is a reason to deny access, the custodial parent should be encouraged to let a court deal with the matter. Self-help should be discouraged and parties should be encouraged to respect court orders. Forcing one parent to comply with a court order but allowing the other to ignore the order does neither.

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In Whitton v. Whitton reflex, (1989), 34 O.A.C. 31, 21 R.F.L. (3d) 261, [1989] O.J. No. 1002, 1989 Cars*well*Ont 265 (Ont. C.A.), in an application framed under the Divorce Act and after considering the decision of Law v. Law, supra, Appeal Justice George D. Finlayson observed at page 264 [R.F.L.]:


I am satisfied that Joanne still falls within the definition of child of the marriage in the separation agreement. If she continues to refuse to engage in any sensible discussion with her father on the matter of her future education, the appellant’s only recourse would be to pursue a parallel proceeding, already instituted, to have the quantum of her maintenance reviewed by the court.

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A decision of this court which is similar to the present case and in which the sole reason for denying child support was the child’s rejection of her father, is Marsland v. Gibb, 2000 BCSC 471 (CanLII), (2000), 5 R.F.L. (5th) 406, 2000 BCSC 471. The court there dismissed an application by the mother of a 19 year old daughter seeking a variation of a child support order. At para. 34 Romilly J. stated:

…The case at bar represents a case of complete rejection by Jennifer of her father. Although Mr. Gibb has made numerous attempts to establish a father-daughter relationship with Jennifer she has continuously rejected them in no uncertain terms since she was 11 years old. Jennifer is now an adult and must be aware of the consequences of her actions towards her father. In the unique factors of the case at bar I am not satisfied that Jennifer is any longer a “child of the marriage”….

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http://www.canlii.org/en/sk/skca/doc...01skca115.html

child terminated access, support terminated.



Remember in alot of these cases, the child had reachedthe age of majority.
It is a terrible thing to have to wait so many years without being able to have contact with your child to be able to seek termination of support.
In many cases access and contact was terminated at a young age, yet the payer had no recourse until the child reached college age, a very sad situation indeed.

[stoopid1]

Thank you for taking time to reply to my post. Very helpful as always.
stoop