The maintenance obligation, according to the Family and Guardianship Code, exists for a child who is not yet able to support himself. This means that it also applies to children who have already reached the age of majority. Parents of a child are obliged according to their strength and earning and property possibilities to contribute to satisfying the needs of the family. If the parents of the children are divorced, the other parent submits the maintenance claim on behalf of the minor child, if the child has already reached the age of majority, he / she does it personally. A special case where the court must decide on maintenance is divorce, provided that the spouses have minor children. Even in a situation where both spouses would ask for no maintenance, in a divorce decree, the court states how much the spouses are required to bear the costs of raising and maintaining children.
However, sometimes divorce cases last several months. During this period, you cannot start a separate maintenance case. For this period, you can receive funds to support your family members through an application for security, which you can bring with your divorce application or during the proceedings. If such proceedings were initiated before an action for divorce or legal separation, it shall be suspended ex officio.
The situation when the spouses have minor children is clear. Doubts arise when children are of legal age, but are not yet able to support themselves. Until 2005, the legislator regulated such a situation in the Code of Civil Procedure, but the provision was repealed. In connection with this, the Supreme Court adopted a resolution on November 28, 2012 with reference number III CZP 77/12, in which it responded to the above issue – it decided that at the request of one of the spouses, it is possible to decide on the obligation to contribute to satisfaction during dealing with the needs of the family, including the cost of living of adult children. The resolution was repeatedly cited and confirmed in later jurisprudence of the Supreme Court (including the decision of the Supreme Court of November 24, 2016, reference number III CZP 73/16).
Notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s resolution, not all Courts apply this interpretation of the applicable provisions. The Court of Appeal in Katowice in its judgment of 10 September 2014. I Acz 670/14 pointed out that he did not share this legal structure. He considered that one could not rule on the obligation of the other spouse to meet the needs of adult children.
In the aforementioned resolution of 2012, the Supreme Court also acknowledged that an adult child may be secured during a divorce case, a divorce decree may not provide maintenance for an adult child. Securing claims for contributing to satisfying the needs of the family is treated as spontaneous and ultimately, detached from the judgment and is not subject to verification in the judgment (the security is checked as part of the precautionary procedure). If you are still entitled to a maintenance claim, after your divorce is over, an adult child can file a lawsuit.
It is also worth mentioning the situation in which the child acquires the majority of majority during the trial. Such a case was examined, among others The Court of Appeal in Kraków – I ACa 223/14 – where it decided that if the child reaches the age of majority after passing the sentence, as a result of appealing against the judgment, in the part concerning parental authority or maintenance, the court should quash the sentence and discontinue the proceedings in this respect.
[legal status: November 2019]