Marriage of Drake CA4/3

INTRODUCTION

In this appeal, Glenn Richard Drake (Glenn) challenges the trial court’s order requiring him to pay adult child support of $1,404 per month for his emancipated son, Dallas Drake (Dallas). His appeal presents two issues. First, were the conditions of Family Code section 3910, subdivision (a) (section 3910(a)) for payment of adult child support met? Second, did the trial court err by ordering that adult child support payments be made to Terri E. Drake (Terri), who is Dallas’s mother and Glenn’s ex-wife, and to allow her to use those payments for her personal expenses?

Family Code section 3910 governs a parent’s responsibility to support an adult child. Section 3910(a) provides: “The father and mother have an equal responsibility to maintain, to the extent of their ability, a child of whatever age who is incapacitated from earning a living and without sufficient means.” Although the trial court misconstrued the standard for an award of adult child support, the court did not err by ordering Glenn to make support payments because the evidence established that Dallas was incapacitated from earning a living and without sufficient means. Dallas, who suffers from…