Sininger v. Sininger

• Decision Date: 01 September 1983
• Docket Number: No. 83,83
• Citation: 300 Md. 604,479 A.2d 1354
• Parties: Donald A. SININGER v. Emma G. SININGER. ,
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 604

300 Md. 604

479 A.2d 1354

Donald A. SININGER v. Emma G. SININGER.

No. 83, Sept. Term, 1983.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Aug. 23, 1984.

Ronald B. Bergman, Hyattsville (Pickett, Houlon & Berman, Hyattsville, on the brief), for appellant.

Dorothy R. Fait, Silver Spring, for appellee.

Argued before MURPHY, C.J., ELDRIDGE, COLE, DAVIDSON, RODOWSKY, COUCH, JJ., and CHARLES E. ORTH, Jr., Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals (retired), Specially Assigned.

COUCH, Judge.

The issue presented in this case is whether a parent has a duty, enforceable in equity, to support an adult child who becomes disabled after the age of majority.

On December 10, 1980, Emma Sininger, appellee, filed a Bill of Complaint for Child Support against Donald Sininger appellant, in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County. The parties had been divorced a vinculo matrimonii on February 19, 1969. Pursuant to the divorce, appellant paid child support for each of their three children until they reached the age of majority--age twenty one. ¹ By court order, payments were ended in August of 1980, all children having reached the requisite age.

By the complaint filed herein, Mrs. Sininger sought support for their daughter Janette, who although age twenty-three at the time, suffered from severe mental illness and was incapable of supporting and caring for herself. At hearings before a domestic relations master testimony focused on when Janette's disability occurred. Appellant contended that Janette was not disabled by her illness until she became an emancipated adult. Both parties agree that after reaching age twenty one, Janette left the family home and held her own apartment and a job. Further, it is uncontested that Janette presently is disabled and requires medical attention. Appellee maintained, however, that Janette's mental illness, hence her disability, began in childhood and that she never was able to care for herself properly. The evidence focused on this question because in ruling on appellant's Motion for Decision of a Question of Law, the master had held that for support to be awarded, appellee had to prove that Janette's mental or physical disability existed before she reached the age of majority.

After hearing the evidence, the master found that Janette was not disabled at the time she attained the age of majority, and he denied support. Appellee excepted to the master's legal and factual conclusions. The circuit court accepted the master's factual finding concerning the time that the disability occurred, but granted appellee's exception to the master's legal conclusion that the duty to support an adult child existed only when the disability preceded emancipation. The court concluded that Janette was currently disabled and that Maryland law imposed an obligation on her parents to contribute to her support. The case was remanded to the master to determine Janette's needs and the relative abilities of her parents to pay. Based on all the testimony, the master recommended child support of $300.00 per month commencing and accounting from January 1, 1982. Both parties excepted to the master's recommendations. The circuit court overruled the exceptions and adopted the master's recommendations.

Mr. Sininger appealed to the Court of Special Appeals and Mrs. Sininger cross-appealed contending that the sum awarded and the retroactive date set were clearly erroneous. Prior to consideration by the intermediate appellate court, we issued certiorari on our own motion to consider this issue of public importance.

Appellant first contends that the equity court lacked jurisdiction to order child support because jurisdiction terminated once the children attained the age of majority. Appellant's contention focuses on the lack of continuing jurisdiction. The complaint, however, although based in equity, is not for modification of the original support order. The complaint here relies on the court's general equity jurisdiction and not on its continuing jurisdiction in the original domestic relations case. Appellant essentially concedes that section 3-602(a) of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article, Maryland Code (1974, 1984 Repl.Vol.), ² grants the circuit court jurisdiction over a child; and that if the term "child" has been statutorily enlarged it may include more than persons under the age of majority. In the instant case the issue before us is whether an incapacitated adult child is to be treated on equal footing with a minor child. Because we will hold that the parent has a duty to support an incapacitated adult child and because such an adult child is to be treated on equal footing with a minor child, the parents duty is properly enforceable under section 3-602(a), Maryland Code (1974, 1984 Repl.Vol.), Cts. & Jud.Proc. Article.

Appellant contends, and the dissent agrees, that the duty to support a disabled child into adulthood continues because the disability prevents the child from ever becoming emancipated. The reasoning is that because the child is incapable of emancipation, he remains a minor and the obligation continues until the condition changes. Appellant concedes that the parental duty to support exists in the situation where the incapacitation is continuing from the child's minority, but contends that the duty extends no further. Appellant contends that once a child becomes an emancipated adult the obligation of parental support cannot be resumed. We shall refer to this view as the emancipation rationale. Appellant supports these contentions by characterizing Smith v. Smith, 227 Md. 355, 176 A.2d 862 (1962), the pivotal case on point, as a case limited to its facts, which involve a child incapacitated during his minority. Essentially, the appellant would draw a distinction in the parents' support obligation based upon the time that the child's disability arose. We do not agree.

In Borchert v. Borchert, 185 Md. 586, 45 A.2d 463 (1946), this Court first addressed the issue of a parent's duty to support an adult incompetent child. The Court pointed out that no common law obligation to support adult incompetent children existed, id. at 590, 45 A.2d at 465, but noted a tendency in other jurisdictions to expand the common law and to recognize a duty, id. at 592, 45 A.2d at 465. The Court, however, chose not to follow the trend in the absence of statutory authority in this state to enforce such a duty. Id. at 594-95, 45 A.2d at 466-67. The Court stated:

"However desirable it may be for some power to exist by which a father may be compelled to support his son, ... the Legislature has not seen fit to make the failure to do so a criminal offense although it has so designated such failure in other domestic situations heretofore mentioned. The omission by the legislative branch of the government of such a statute is an indication that the failure to support an incapacitated child is placed by it on a different footing from the failure to support a minor child. We cannot now without further legislative action hold that the divorce statute attempted to be invoked in this case is enlarged to include other than minor children."

Id. The Court was content to hold that a parental duty did exist for purposes of the law of the case based upon the concession of the appellant. Id. at 592, 45 A.2d at 46. In view of the Court's holding that such a duty was ultimately unenforceable, it was not essential to determine whether the duty was recognized in Maryland.

The General Assembly promptly responded to the legislative omission noted by the Court in Borchert, and in 1947 enacted what is now codified as Maryland Code (1957, 1982 Repl.Vol.), Article 27, § 97. The statute provides:

"s 97. Failure of parent to support destitute adult child.

Any person who has an adult child destitute of means and unable to support himself by reason of mental or physical infirmity, who is possessed of or able to earn means sufficient to provide such child with necessary shelter, food, care and clothing and who neglects or refuses so to do, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $1,000.00 or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both."

The Court again faced the issue in Smith v. Smith, 227 Md. 355, 176 A.2d 862 (1962). In Smith, a chancellor's order for the divorced father to pay support for his physically incapacitated adult child, who lacked other means of support, was upheld. Id. at 360, 176 A.2d at 865. The Court reviewed the Borchert decision and then held:

"It is significant, we think, that at the first opportunity after the Borchert decision further legislative action was in fact taken. At its 1947 session the Legislature enacted an act now codified as § 97 of Art. 27, Code (1957), making it a criminal offense for a parent, possessing the means, to fail to provide for a destitute adult child where mental or physical infirmity makes it impossible for the child to care for itself. The passage of this act is a clear indication of legislative intent to place failure to support an incapacitated child on equal footing with failure to support a minor child."

Id. (emphasis added).

In Smith, the Court did not draw a distinction based on emancipation. The Court held that the legislative enactment made it clear that the duty to support an adult incapacitated child was on equal footing with the duty to support a minor child. 227 Md. at 360, 176 A.2d at 865. The holding in Smith is based on Article 27, section 97, of the Maryland Code (1957, 1982 Repl.Vol.). This statute contains no suggestion that a distinction should be based on emancipation. We agree with the holding in Smith that the legislative intent in this enactment was clear.

Although the facts of Smith involved a child incapacitated during his minority, ³ it is significant that the Court did not include such facts in the recitation of facts, rationale, or holding of its opinion. The fact that the child was incapacitated during his...