TITLE 33
Probate practice and procedure
CHAPTER 33-11
Claims Against Decedents' Estates
SECTION 33-11-51
§ 33-11-51 Survival of child support
obligations Enforcement of claims Child support public policy.
(a) It is the public policy of the state of Rhode Island that dependent
children shall be maintained and supported, as completely as possible, from the
resources of their parents thereby relieving or avoiding, to the fullest
extent, the burden borne by the citizens of the state.
(b) In furtherance of said policy and not withstanding any
conflicting statute or prior case law, it is declared that a parent's legally
enforceable obligation to pay child support, past and future:
(1) Continues until the child's eighteenth (18th) birthday or
such later date or event set forth in the family court's decree of child
support;
(2) Is not extinguished by but survives the parent's death;
(3) Is enforceable as a priority creditor's claim from the
deceased parent's probate estate;
(4) Is enforceable by imposition of a constructive trust over
the deceased parent's non- probate assets by equity petition in the superior
court to the extent of any deficiency from the deceased parent's probate estate;
(5) Takes precedence over and must be satisfied prior to any
distribution of the deceased parent's probate assets by intestacy or by will;
and
(6) Cannot be nullified by disinheriting the child, however,
a parent may exercise testamentary discretion and disinherit a child subject to
the prior satisfaction of all his or her child support obligations, accrued and
future.
(c) The family court may modify child support obligations
only for a substantial change in circumstances while the child is a minor and
the parent with the obligation to support the child is alive. After said
parent's death, the probate or superior court, as the case may be, shall hear
and determine the child's claim and may award:
(1) Delinquent and/or accrued child support to the date of
the parent's death, with interest therein at the statutory rate; and
(2) Future or prospective child support until the child's
eighteenth (18th) birthday or such later date or event set forth in the family
court's decree of child support, offset by social security benefits payable to
or for the child by reason of the parent's death, and discounted to present
value.
History of Section.
(P.L. 2008, ch. 298, § 1; P.L. 2008, ch. 314, § 1.)
