Son abandoned by abusive father now needs help
Dear Mrs Macaulay, I was asked by a co-worker last September to assist a woman and her son. Evidently the woman had fled an abusive relationship, leaving her son with his father who had become physically and verbally abusive towards the child. At the start of the school year the father refused to send the young man back to school and told him to start contributing financially to the household or leave. At the time the young man was 17 years old.
Both the school and I partnered to have him enrolled for the academic year and he started living at my home. I have been fully responsible for him financially since last September, as his mother does not have steady employment and his father has refused financial support. I did not think it was necessary to go through the courts because of how close he was to 18; and his mother provided written authorisation for me to act on her behalf. The young man has since matriculated to sixth form and I am now having challenges adding him to my health insurance, accessing grants for school, and accessing benefits from my employer as I have no official court documents legitimising my guardianship.
Based on his age and the unique circumstances, I am not clear what my options are. Please help me to understand what steps should be taken since he is now 18 years old and will likely be in school for another five years as he has hopes of pursuing a political science degree at UWI.
Your circumstances and that of the young man are indeed unique for this column. Though there are many such abandonments by fathers of their responsibilities for and of their children, these situations are not often brought to public light and attention though they ought to be. Thank you for doing so, and thank you for what you have done and are doing for this young man who clearly has intellectual ability and the interest to pursue further education, which ought to be encouraged and applauded.
It is a pity that you did not go to the Family Court with his mother at the time she gave you her written authority to guard and take care of him. You and she would have been given advice there wherein she, the mother, could have applied for legal custody of the child and for you to have care and control of him and she would also have been advised to apply for a maintenance order to be made against the father to be paid to you as the person with physical custody of him. If you were also to be appointed his guardian, that application would have to be made in the Supreme Court. The father would be the named defendant in every instance. All these would have had to be made under the Children (Guardianship and Custody) Act.
You and she may have also been advised to pursue applications against the father under the Domestic Violence Act on hers and her son’s behalf. She could also have applied for maintenance of her son, and for that to continue during his tertiary level studies until he would obtain his undergraduate degree or until he turned 23, whichever came sooner.
Since you did not do this, let me tell you that the consequence is very unfortunate. You are left with one legal course and this is that you can file a claim against the father for the refund of all you have had to spend on providing for the young man in the last year from when you assumed your care of him up to his 18th birthday. The Children (Guardianship and Custody) Act provides for actions of this kind in cases where a parent fails or neglects or refuses (as in your case) to meet his legal obligation to provide for his child, and places the burden on someone else, as he did with you.
The father clearly owes you all that you spent for his son during his 17th year because of his refusal to provide for him in any way. You must add every cost to your claim which should include the cost of shelter/housing, his usage of utilities, all of which you should apportion between you both (if you and he are the only occupants of your home). If not, you should apportion the costs equally between all the occupants. Also apportion the cost of food, transportation, his clothing, footwear, toiletries, barbering costs, lunch monies, educational and medical expenses, and pocket money if you provided any to him, as well as expenses for his entertainment and for miscellaneous expenses.
You should retain a lawyer to assist you with the claim — a family law practitioner would be most useful and effective. The sums you obtain will at least help to defray some of your ward’s current and maybe future expenses.
You should perhaps also try get one of the banks or societies or large companies which act philanthropically to agree to provide a grant for the young man’s expenses to enable him to complete his education — at least to cover his sixth form firstly, and then hopefully his undergraduate studies.
You should also explore, after discussions with the young man, the possibility of his applying for and obtaining a student loan. This may only apply to his degree course. You should contact the Students’ Loan Bureau and find out the possibility of his obtaining such a loan. I think he sounds like a shoe-in for a student loan as he seems to me to be the perfect example of someone who ought to be granted such a loan.
This is all I can suggest in the circumstances and I hope I have given you some food for thought and the legal course you can now take against the young man’s father, who sounds like not only a deadbeat dad, but also a deadbeat man. So make him pay you back what he should have provided for his son.
I wish you and the boy the very best.
Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public, and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide personal responses.
DISCLAIMER:
The contents of this article are for informational purposes only, and must not be relied upon as an alternative to legal advice from your own attorney.
