The New Jersey appeals court has tossed a judge's previous ruling regarding a daughter suing her parents for college tuition. The three-judge panel in Caitlyn Ricci's case against her divorced parents, Michael Ricci and Maura McGovern, stated her "parents are not a wallet."
Ricci, 23, wanted her parents to pay her $16,000 tuition at Temple University in Philadelphia. A judge ordered Ricci's mom and dad to cover this in 2014 but an appellate court's 43-page Feb. 9 ruling has overturned the order.
"A parent cannot be viewed as a wallet and deprived of involvement of college decision-making process," the appeals court stated in its ruling, according to New York Daily News. The court also suggested for the family to settle their disagreement out of court to avoid further stress.
Ricci has been emancipated from her parents since 2013 and has been living with her grandmother two years prior. When she entered college a year later, however, she sued her parents for support for college tuition, citing a 1982 ruling ordering divorced parents to legally pay for their children's education.
Ricci's parents did not want to cover her college expenses unless she fixed her relationship with them. "I'm not going to give them any money until my daughter has a relationship with me and we start to heal our family," Ricci's dad said during the 2014 hearing, according to ABC 7.
The appellate court, however, noted the relationship of the daughter with her parents in overturning the lower court's first ruling. Ricci's mom told the court her daughter refused to obey them, or do her share in the household chores and has gotten in trouble for underage drinking.
"[Ricci] demonstrated her desire to be independent of parental control, which obviated any obligation for support," the ruling stated, according to Courier-Post Online. "If I need my parents' support, I'd better be taking their guidance," the mom's lawyer Kelli Martone said. "They're linked."
Martone also said that the family has tried to patch things up since the appeal. "It appears her relationship with her parents is incredibly improved," the lawyer said.
