"Child of the Marriage" - support for the adult child

The phrase "child of the marriage" is a term of art that is defined in the Divorce Act. It allows the court to order support for adult children who continue to be dependent on their parents. It thus can extend the usual parental responsibilities, where the marriage has broken down, from moral ones, for example, to assist in the financing of a post-secondary education, to a legal ones.

Typically, the courts have held that this obligation would extend to the completion of a first post-secondary degree or training program, with an age limit of 21. The Manitoba Court of Appeal, in Newman v. Thompson, required a parent to continue to support his child, who was 23 and studying in the United States, in the completion of his PhD program. Len Fishman argued the case for the "custodial" parent, which confirmed the principle that the court is not bound by any fixed rule in this regard, but that the determination of an obligation to continue support depends on the circumstances of the child, the means of the parents and the expectations that arose in the family.