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Carter v Parkinson [2017] NZFC 2010

Published 31 August 2017

Application — departure from formula assessment — adopted child — change in care — moral duty to pay child support — Child Support Act 1991. The applicants were the adoptive parents of the child that the application was about, and the respondent was her biological mother. The daughter had left her adoptive parents home to live with her boyfriend. For a period of time after leaving, she and her boyfriend lived with her biological mother, and with her boyfriend's family. The dispute arose over the payment of child support whilst the daughter was in her biological mother's care for a period of ten months, and whether the circumstances were out of the ordinary and changed the obligation to pay child support. The court gave significant weight to the decision made by the daughter to move out of her adoptive parents' home. The court found that it would be unjust and inequitable for the adoptive parents to be required to pay child support and that this injustice outweighed the injustice and inequitably to the daughter and the adoptive parent if child support was not ordered. The adoptive parents were not required to pay child support to the biological mother. Judgment Date: 24 April 2017. * * * Note: Names have been changed to comply with legal requirements * * *