Family Law Postminority Support

The Montgomery Circuit Court entered a judgment divorcing Gerald Jones, the father, and Gaynor Jones, the mother, in 1998. In August 2011, the mother petitioned the trial court for post-minority educational support for one of the parties’ children, Garrette. After a trial, the trial court entered an order in April 2013 awarding the mother postminority educational support for Garrette. The father appealed and the Court of Civil Appeals reinvested the trial court with jurisdiction for the sole purpose of entering an amount or percentage of postminority educational support.

The trial court entered an order requiring the father to pay 100 percent of Garrette’s postminority educational support. The father appealed that order as well. The Court of Civil Appeals affirmed the trial court’s judgment in both appeals, without an opinion. The father petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari. Reversed. The Court overruled Ex parte Bayless,550 So.2d 986 (Ala. 1989), and held that the child custody statute, Ala. Code 1975, § 30-3-1, did not authorize a trial court in a divorce action to require a noncustodial parent to pay educational support for a child who was over the age of 19.

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