Court: Man's Rich Parents Don't Have to Support Him

Instead, 41-year-old has to pay his parents' legal fees of $74K
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 1, 2020 8:06 AM CDT
41-Year-Old Requests Child Support—for Himself
This 2008 photo shows the Royal Courts of Justice in London.   (Wikimedia/bortescristian)

A 41-year-old London man who took his parents to court in an attempt to secure their financial support is out of luck—and out $74,000. A High Court judge dismissed the case on Wednesday and ordered the man to pay his parents' legal fees, per the Telegraph. Neither party was identified in the case, which Sir James Munby described as "most unusual" and apparently "unprecedented," per the BBC. "I suspect that the initial reaction of most experienced family lawyers would be a robust disbelief that there is even arguable substance to any of it," the judge wrote. The 41-year-old is a qualified solicitor with degrees in taxation and modern history. But Munby said he had "various difficulties and mental health disabilities" and had been unemployed since 2011. He's been living in a London flat owned by his Dubai-based parents, who also covered the bills.

The man's lawyer said the "very wealthy" parents had "nurtured his dependency on them" for 20 years, and after a falling out, they "seek to cast that dependency onto the state." But Munby said existing provisions for parents to fund their adult children required an order for financial support when the person was young and the parents were living apart. "Conventional wisdom and practice would suggest that these provisions were never intended to be used and cannot be used to fund the education of a perpetual student," he said, per the Telegraph, noting the man is now studying to become a chartered tax adviser and take law school admission exams. An adult child "should not be able to take his parents to court to obtain finance." Munby then denied permission for an appeal, saying the man's ongoing efforts were "an abuse of process." (More United Kingdom stories.)

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