Probate judge says son has educational obligations in divorce agreement

By Associtaed Press

BOSTON - A ruling by a probate judge freeing a divorced father's estate from paying his son's college tuition due to the boy's failing grades could redefine child and parental obligations, legal analysts say.

''I think it opens a Pandora's box for a parent to now say a child's not living up to his or her end of the bargain,'' said family practice lawyer Gary Todd, not involved in the case. ''I think what's most interesting is you have a court looking at a child's obligation when dealing with support. Typically, you're looking at the financial obligations of a parent.''

In his ruling last month, Essex Probate Judge John C. Stevens found that while the father was required to pay tuition, the son also had a responsibility to try to succeed in school.

''In an intact family, no one can go to court and have an order that your parents pay for college,'' Harriet Schechter, the lawyer for the estate of the father, George Vinal Sr., told The Boston Globe in an interview published Friday. ''In a divorced family, you can have that.''

George and Florence Vinal divorced in 1982 when their only child, George Jr., was 5. The father agreed to pay $400 a week in child support, and for his son's college education. The father, who owned a sand-and-gravel company, has since died.

The son enrolled in Boston University in 1995, and for three of his first four semesters, made the dean's list. But starting in 1997, his grades began to drop, and when his class graduated in spring 1999, he had failed five classes, received incompletes in others and had not yet fulfilled the language and math requirements necessary for graduation, according to court records.

The father eventually subpoenaed his son's school records, and saw the low grades.

Florence Vinal said her son's grades dropped because he was distraught about seeing his father less, and because he switched to a more demanding double major in political science and philosophy.

In 1999, George Vinal Sr., diagnosed with cancer, asked that his child-support obligations be reduced because he son wasn't holding his part of the bargain by failing in school.

Florence Vinal argued that the divorce agreement stipulated that the father pay for college through December 1999, and didn't say anything about maintaining a certain grade-point average.

Stevens ruled that the estate of the father was not responsible for tuition payments past May 1999, when the son should have graduated.

''That the son chose to pursue a double major, allowed his course work to fall so far behind, and failed several required courses is the son's responsibility,'' Stevens wrote. ''The father need not bear the economic burden of his son's deficient academic performance.''

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