If you believed you had heard every custody dispute or divorce horror story there is, we have a fresh one for you.
The unpaid child support that a San Diego mother had owed since her ex-husband left for Canada and never came was finally granted by a judge. The real kicker is that she is only now discovering the money even though it occurred about 50 years ago. Well, turns out fleeing to another country to evade child support never lets you off the hook entirely.
Toni Anderson, 74, of California, who recently retired, felt like it was time for her ex-husband to be held responsible. She then discovered that parental responsibilities had no geographical boundaries when she woke up to the realization. That is to say, her ex-need husband’s to pay child support was not affected by his location, and she thus made the decision to take the matter to court.
Given the circumstances, Anderson did an amazing job raising her daughter Lena Lenhart as a single mother; she recalls how she raised her 3-year-old daughter on her own after Donald Lenhart moved in the early 1970s when the couple got divorced. But Anderson did an exceptional job by giving them all the love she have and supported her daughter by sending her to college in Paris.
She even inspired Lena to take up interior design at the same Los Angeles firm she worked at before retiring.
The mother of one, however, acknowledges that despite her best efforts over many years to give her kid the finest, money has simply run out. After fifty years of negligence, $160 in monthly installments has grown to a startling $170,000.
Anderson claims that as a result, she now only leases out a portion of her house to cover her expenses. It’s also what most recently caused her to reflect on the years she toiled and worked herself to death to support herself and her daughter on a single mom’s paycheck.
And that’s when it hit her.
“I realized in the middle of the night one night last year, ‘Hey, there’s no statute of limitations on child support,’“ she said.
That child support, which at the time was just $160 a month, added up to a considerable sum in today’s dollars. In fact, a court hearing found it added up to the tune of $150,000.
Donald Lenhart, who has since returned to Oregon after ending his self-imposed exile, will now make a payment of $150,000.
Anderson is certain that other Californian single parents in her situation should pursue their unfaithful partners and reclaim their debts. She makes reference to her own situation and states that she is relieved that her ex-husband is finally experiencing the pressure she has been carrying for the past 50 years.
Just because your child may be grown or even out of the nest doesn’t mean you don’t still have the rights to seek overdue child support. There are a lot of these women out there; in fact, a 2011 US Census Bureau analysis indicated that custodial mothers were owed an astounding $12.1 billion in past-due child support. And there are nine to one more single parents than single dads who are owed support.
In reality, failing to make child support payments is a federal violation, and depending on how long you were negligent and how much money you owed, you might face jail time. Because Mr. Lenhart departed the country for more than two years to evade payment, his case serves as an illustration of a felony.
Sources: Awm, People, Goodmorningamerica
