Parents May Limit Court’s Jurisdiction In Adult Child Support Order, But They Didn’t Limit It Here.

When a couple divorced in 2001, they reached an agreement to equally split the future college expenses for their three minor children. Eleven years later, their daughter began incurring significant expenses, but by then the [former] wife was disabled and had an income of less than $23,000/year; whereas, the [former] husband’s income was over $400,000. The trial court concluded it lacked jurisdiction to modify the judgment “because the marital settlement agreement did not refer to the obligation as ‘child support.’”  The appellate court stated “the court’s jurisdiction to order adult child support under [Family Code] section 3587 derives entirely from the parents’ agreement to pay adult support and the statute grants the court limited authority ‘to make a support order to effectuate the agreement.’ Consistent with this grant of limited authority, in [Family Code] section 3651, the Legislature expressly made the court’s general authority to modify a support order ‘subject to’ 3587.”  The appellate court concluded an order for adult child support pursuant to the parents’ agreement may be made non-modifiable by agreement as well to restrict the court’s jurisdiction, but, in this case, the parents did not limit the court’s jurisdiction to modify.  The matter was reversed and remanded for the trial court to consider whether the agreement should be modified.  (Drescher v. Gross (Cal. App. Second Dist., Div. 3; April 11, 2014)225 Cal.App.4th 478, [169 Cal.Rptr.3d 918].)