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Marcinkiewicz v. Marrero4/18/2005
m, 122 N.J. Super. 146, 149 (Ch. Div. 1973)(quoting Black's Law Dictionary 613 (4th ed. 1951).]
Divorced parents are "equally charged with their children's care, nurture, education and welfare," obligations that terminate upon a child's emancipation. Gac v. Gac, 351 N.J. Super. 54, 61 (App. Div. 2002). See N.J.S.A. 9:2-4; Grotsky v. Grotsky, 58 N.J. 354, 356-57 (1971).
We discern no basis for imposing liability in favor of a chronic drinker, or one making a derivative claim, for failure to limit the drinker's freedom of action where he was, legally, an adult; or to impose liability on one parent in favor of the other for the consequences of acts committed by their eventually emancipated child with respect to his own well-being, where the parents have stood and stand in legally equivalent positions.
To the extent plaintiff had reason to perceive, as she clearly did, that her son was engaging in self-destructive behavior, she, when invested with joint legal custody, and possibly even after having sought the child's emancipation, had the same legally available capacity to address the problem as defendant father did, rather than the course of inaction she took with respect to the child's addiction. Having elected that course, plaintiff cannot be heard to transfer sole parental responsibility to the other parent just because, with her acquiesence or at her choice, the child resided with him.
Affirmed.
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