Can Mississippi court order support beyond child's emancipation?
In Mississippi, court can't require child support past 21st birthday.
In a case last week out of Jackson County, the Mississippi Court of Appeals reaffirmed the rule that a parent can not be obligated to pay for a child’s expenses past the age of 21. Daniels v. Bains was a paternity action and child support case. After DNA testing proved Daniels as the father, the court ordered Daniels to pay child support. Part of the support order required Daniels to pay for his daughter’s college expenses. Specifically, he was required to pay all of his daughter’s undergraduate college expenses and one-half of the expenses for graduate school, conditioned on his daughter’s grades.
On appeal, Daniels argued the order required him to pay for expenses after his daughter turned 21, the age of emancipation in Mississippi. The Mississippi Court of Appeals agreed and reversed the part of the order requiring him to pay beyond his daughter’s 21st birthday. As the court reiterated, Mississippi Code Sec. 93-11-65(8) states in part, “the duty of support of a child terminates upon the emancipation of the child.” Emancipation occurs at the latest when the child turns 21 years old. For more discussion on this issue, see my previous post.
In Mississippi, unlike a majority of states, a child is emancipated at the latest when they turn 21 years old. Once emancipated, a court cannot obligate the parent to pay child support, whether it is basic living expenses or expenses related to college.
