It happens so often that a parent who claims maintenance in a divorce for his/her child from the other parent has to hear that you can only claim on behalf of the minor children and not for the child that is older than 18 years old. The adult child has to go and claim maintenance on his/her own behalf from both parents.

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) however made a ruling that adult children who are still financially dependent on their parents need not to go and institute a claim on his/her own behalf. This is a ground breaking ruling because before this court case there were many conflicting cases regarding the question whether a parent has the legal standing to claim maintenance in divorce proceedings on behalf of an adult child as it was always the standing that these adult children had claim maintenance from both parents on their own behalf.

In this particular case being Z v Z,[a mother of two children in her divorce proceedings claimed for maintenance on her own behalf as well as for her two children. The father however, filed a special plea that the claim be dismissed as the children is above the age of 18 meaning they are adults and should go and claim on their own behalf.

The SCA however cleared up this question and ruled in favor of the mother stating that she can claim maintenance as it was common cause that the children although they were adults were still Dependant financially on the parents. The Judge further stated that parents’ duty to support their children does not end at divorce.

We are not sure how this case will affect all maintenance cases in the future as this was a divorce matter, however the SCA also ruled that before a court can give such a ruling in divorce proceedings, parties still have to satisfy the court that there is still in fact a need to provide maintenance for the adult children meaning that a parent does not have the automatic right to just claim on behalf of an adult child.

Z v Z (556/2021) [2022] ZASCA 113 (21 July 2022)