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15 Feb ’12
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Wait, parents are required to pay tuition in NJ? Groin, you gotta move!
A judge reaffirmed his order on Monday that Maura McGarvey and Michael Ricci pay 21-year-old Caitlyn Ricci’s community college tuition.
Caitlyn Ricci brought the suit against her parents in August 2013, suing them for $906 in tuition to Rowan College in Pennsylvania, according to The Inquirer. A few months later, a judge ruled in her favor. On Monday, he upheld his decision, ordering the parents to pay by the end of the year.
But all is not settled: In October, Caitlyn Ricci also sued her parents for another $16,000 in tuition from Philadelphia’s Temple University, where she is currently a student. In October, a judge ruled in her favor, but Michael Ricci and McGarvey are planning to appeal, saying their daughter didn’t apply for all eligible loans and scholarships, The Inquirer reported. They are raising funds for their appeal through a GoFundme account.
McGarvey, an English teacher, and Michael Ricci, a high school basketball coach, are divorced and have each remarried and have younger children. The New Jersey-based parents say they can’t afford out-of-state college tuition.
Relations have been strained between Caitlyn Ricci and her parents for some time. In February, 2013, Caitlyn Ricci moved in with her grandparents. The reason for the move is in debate: McGarvey told the court her daughter left because she was asked to do chores and follow a curfew, and also because she had drinking problems. Caitlyn Ricci said she left in part over a dispute about summer classes, according to The Inquirer.
In a November post on her blog, McGarvey wrote about her daughter’s alleged problems with alcohol abuse, and explained that she set strict rules if her daughter was going to live at home: “This plan included a full-time job, household chores, a curfew, and for her to register for three summer classes,” she writes. “The only part of our plan that she had a problem with was the three summer classes. She chose to move out of my house instead of following the rules we established. She packed her things, and moved into her paternal grandparent’s house.”
Andrew Rochester, Caitlyn Ricci’s attorney, disputes the claim that Caitlyn moved out of her own accord. “Caitlyn did not voluntarily leave the home. She was thrown out by her mother,” he told WPVI-TV in Philadelphia. Rochester did not respond to Yahoo Parenting’s request for comment.
McGarvey continues in the post, which she called “The Age of Entitlement”: “I was very clear with Caitlyn about what [moving out] would mean for her – her father would no longer be required to pay child support, I would no longer have the money to help her pay for college, etc. More than once, I told her that she could come home. She didn’t want to. She wanted to live without any rules, with basically no contact with either of her parents or their families, and she wanted her father and I to pay for it. Within a few months of living at her grandparents, Caitlyn retained a lawyer and sued her father and me for college contribution (and a new car.)”
Caitlyn Ricci disagreed: “It’s not about the money. I want to go to college.”
“Caitlyn truly is a good girl,” her lawyer told the Washington Post in November. “She just wants to go to college. That’s all she wants. She wants to go to college. For whatever reason, mom and dad have a different view on that, I guess.”
New Jersey case precedent established that financially capable divorced parents should contribute to the tuition of qualified students. “It varies state by state, but generally, when people get divorced and they have kids that aren’t in college, they determine what their obligations are for college expenses,” Nicole Onorato, a family law attorney at Katz & Stefani in Chicago, tells Yahoo Parenting. “If the court orders at the time of the divorce – or at the time the kid is ready for college – that parents have to contribute, a kid can ask the court to enforce that.”
Though Onorato hasn’t seen the original divorce agreement between Michael Ricci and McGarvey, she says she’s not surprised the court ruled in favor of Caitlyn Ricci. “States see their obligations to children as primary,” she says. “If you have a kid who is serious about college education, I would imagine these cases will usually fall in favor of the children.”
Onorato says she expects to see more of these cases come up as college tuition rises. “We’re talking about 20, 30, 40 grand a year,” she says. “For some people that will be a big burden. As the cost of tuition skyrockets, there will be more people who are unable to meet that obligation and the ripple effect will be more kids suing parents for college since they cant afford it on their own.”
Despite the contentious courtroom drama, both sides have voiced their desire that their family be whole again. The lawyer, Rochester, told the Washington Post that Caitlyn Ricci “desperately wants her family back.”
In her blog post, McGarvey said something similar: “I want to help support Caitlyn, not just financially, but in every way a mother supports her child. I love my daughter, and want only what is best for her.”
This isn’t the first time a child has sued their parents over tuition. In February of this year, 18-year-old Rachel Canning, also of New Jersey, took her parents to court to pay for her college, but ended up dropping her suit.
https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/21-year-old-sues-parents-for-college-tuition-and-104767331362.html
19 Feb ’12
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I didn't know she won the suit. I was under the impression she lost. so much for earning your own way.
15 Feb ’12
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The Dad speaks out
Most nights before I fall asleep, I have tears in my eyes thinking aboutthe difficulty my family is going through. My daughter is suing her mother and me for $16,000 towards college tuition, and a judge has ruled in her favor. My daughter moved out, and I only ever see her in court. It’s certainly not what I wanted for my family.
Every day I wake up and miss my daughter. I miss talking to her, seeing her, asking her about her day, and being involved in her life. I understand that after she was kicked out of her Disney internship, a program she participated in to help prepare for college, she was upset and angry at the rules her mother and I set for her. She was kicked out of the program for underage drinking, and so we had to set boundaries. That included chores, a curfew, and summer classes. When Caitlyn left our home in February 2013, to go to her grandparents, we thought we’d let her go for a couple days and then she would come home. When we called her grandparents to ask that they send her home, they said, “No, she can stay here as long as she wants.” That’s when we knew we had problems.
Maura and I have mutually parented Caitlyn her entire life. We’ve never before been that divorced couple that is in and out of court. We went to court only once — for our divorce. Although we may have disagreed at times, we always had Caitlyn’s best interests in mind. Always.
I found out through Twitter that my daughter was attending Temple [University in Philadelphia]. Yes, Twitter. And now, even after her mother and I agreed that if Caitlyn transferred to a state college we would help her financially (even though she hasn’t spoken to us in almost two years), a judge is telling me that if my daughter wants to go to Temple, she can go, and we have to pay for it. Basically, Caitlyn can go anywhere she wants and we have to pay. We have no say.
I am disappointed in the New Jersey Family court system for making parenting decisions for my daughter, as if they know what is best for her. The bottom line is, she made a mistake when she got kicked out of her internship program. There are consequences for her actions. She didn’t want to abide by our rules, so she left. We asked her several times to come home and she never did. It makes my blood boil listening to a judge tell me that my daughter can go to any school in country she wants to, have no relationship with her parents, and we have to pay! We offered in-state tuition and she wants to go out of state. Common sense would say she should pay for it. The law is ridiculous. My ex and I have met with legislators who are writing a new bill that protects parents from this happening again. Do you realize that if you are married in the state of New Jersey, you are not under any legal obligation to pay for college? But, if you get divorced, you must contribute? Please, someone tell me how that makes sense. Not only do you have to pay, but apparently you have to pay for any college they want to go to, anywhere in the country. My ex and I have five kids between us, a mortgage, and other expenses. Why don’t they take any of that into account?
People who are following this story have been quick to blame Caitlyn exclusively. Each and every story I read is followed by hundreds or even thousands of horrible comments about my daughter and what a brat she is.
While I absolutely place blame on Caitlyn for this, the majority of it lies with her grandparents, who have fostered and even financed this debacle while she lives at their house. What kind of people encourage their granddaughter to sue her own parents…their son? Most days I am sad, even depressed, that something so private is now so public. It’s only when I’m home with my wife or coaching my basketball players that I feel like myself. My ex and I want to help our daughter, we want her to be successful in life, but we would also like to have some influence in her life.
Maura and I are Caitlyn’s parents, so we want to have input and involvement in her decisions. Caitlyn, her attorney, and her grandparents want money. That’s it. The judge asked me in court on Monday if I had a college plan for my daughter. I presented the plan that includes financial help along with moving home and attending counseling. He asked the same of my daughter. Her response, “I want them to pay for college.” The entire thing makes me sick to my stomach.
Caitlyn Ricci’s lawyer, Andrew Rochester, provided the following statement to Yahoo Parenting: “Since Caitlyn has moved in with her grandparents she has gotten into no trouble and her grades have gone up. She is a solid A/B college student and works a 30-hour job. Mr. Ricci should be proud of her accomplishments instead of disparaging because he doesn’t want to pay for her education. It really doesn’t matter if Caitlyn was going to Temple , Rutgers, Montclair State, or Harvard, Mr. Ricci has made clear he wasn’t going to pay no matter what school Caitlyn went to. Mr. Ricci and Ms. McGarvey, based on their incomes, certainly have ability to pay, and we gave them options not to pay cash out of hand and they decided not to avail themselves of those options.”
https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/dad-speaks-out-after-21-year-old-sues-him-to-pay-104864515872.html
19 Feb ’12
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He should remarry his ex. That would teach that girl.
And realistically, if they're going to have that kind of law, they should set limits on the amount college tuition that parents are required to pay.
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