My husband's minor child has lived with his grandparents for 10 of his 17 years. His ex wife has taken an old order for child support that was never amended to the state for enforcement. Is it legal for her to not pay support and enforce it on my husband?
by 
cpeterson
ANSWERS: 3
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My opinion is yes that it can be done, it can be enforced. Since the child is living with the grandparents, both parents should be providing child support. I would seem to me that the fact that one parent (the mother) is not paying child support that that would not relieve the other parent (the father) from providing the child support. However I would seek legal counsel in this matter, just to make sure that my views are proper and in order.
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Regardless of where the child is living, he needs to be supported. However, it would be inequitable for the ex-wife to enforce the old support order as if she was the primary caretaker when she was not. Why should she collect the CHILD'S support money and place it in her own pocket (a windfall for her) when she was not the one who provided the child with the necessities of life? If your husband owes many years of unpaid support, he needs to retain the services of legal counsel to ensure that the support money he pays goes to the grandparents to reimburse them for supporting his son and/or goes directly to the child. Now that the child is 17, perhaps some (or all) of the support money can be paid into a trust account to be used for the child's college education.
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If there is a valid order for child support, it can be enforced and your husband will most likely be ordered to pay the entire sum owed. Again, if according to the court's order, your Husband's ex is a custodial parent, she is the one to enforce it. The only thing your husband can do is to ensure that the court order creates some sort of check-point (trust account, etc.) to make sure that the money will go to the kid and not to his mother.
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