Caitlyn Ricci sued her parents and won. Not for abuse, not for any wrongdoing but for college tuition. And a New Jersey court sided with her.
Caitlyn’s parents, Michael Ricci and Maura McGarvey, have been ordered to pay for their daughter’s college, even though she’s 21 years old, lives with her grandparents and doesn’t speak to them.
Angela Ricci, the grandmother, asked, “How would you have a relationship with your parents if they don’t want to contribute to college?” The grandparents paid for Caitlyn’s attorney in the case.
Caitlyn filed suit in 2013, after moving out of her mother’s house after refusing to do chores and accept a curfew for being caught drinking, according to her parents.
She was attending Gloucester County College, a state college in New Jersey, and a judge ordered her parents to pay her tuition on the condition she apply for all available loans and scholarships to defray the cost. Michael and Maura, now divorced, say she hasn’t complied so they shouldn’t have to pay. Caitlyn then transferred to Temple University in Pennsylvania, which requires out of state tuition totaling $26,000 per year. The judge ordered the family to pay $16,000 per year of the cost.
The parents have refused to pay, saying they can’t afford it.
Caitlyn refuses to speak with her parents, and has not responded to cards, poems and pictures her mother has sent her.
Maura said, “I think she just wants money. She wants us to pay for her education. She feels this is owed to her. Did I ever expect my daughter to sue me? No, of course not. It’s heartbreaking. What child does this? It’s insane.”
Father Michael said, “When he ruled that way, I said there is no way she is getting anything from me until we establish some kind of a relationship again.”
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