Child support OK'd after father's death

The state's high court ruled yesterday that children of unwed parents are entitled to child support payments even after their father's death.

The Supreme Judicial Court has previously ruled that existing child support orders remain in force after a father dies. Yesterday, the court expanded that thinking, ruling that a father's estate is subject to child support orders when none existed prior to death.

"A child's needs do not end with the death of a parent who has been providing support," Justice John M. Greaney wrote in the unanimous court ruling.

"What remains constant, in the circumstances of either the presence or absence of an actual order of support, is the obligation of a parent to provide support and a child's continued need for that support," he added.

The court's ruling comes in a case where the father appears to have been fully involved in his daughter's life without having been ordered to do so by a probate and family court judge. The man, who was not identified, died in a 2006 car crash, the SJC said.

The SJC said the man provided financial support to his daughter, valued at $19,795 in 2005, which included weekly child support, private school tuition, and other means.

The court also said that the father and daughter were close and that the daughter, who is now 15, had a good relationship with her two half sisters.

But the financial support ended with the father's death, and the girl's mother went to court seeking to maintain some financial aid, said Diane Mulligan, the mother's lawyer.

Mulligan said the girl gets $992 monthly Social Security benefits and, after a suit, has collected a $200,000 life insurance policy.

But with the girl looking into college, Mulligan said, she and her mother may have to get financial support from her father's estate.

In a statement, the attorneys for the father, John and Matthew Spillane, said, "The SJC has added language to the relevant statute which the l Legislature clearly never intended to include