Facts
D. X. was born in 1964 as the daughter of T. and F. X. During the divorce of her parents in 1979, she was awarded to her mother. The father was obliged to pay monthly maintenance contributions until the daughter's 20th birthday, which he did. However, after reaching the age of majority, D. X. broke off all contact with her father and refused any contact with him. After the father had stopped the maintenance payments, D. X. sued him for continued payment of the contributions.
The High Court obliged the father to pay maintenance to the daughter until the end of her training as a physiotherapist. The father appealed this judgment to the Federal Supreme Court.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court granted the father's appeal and overturned the judgment of the High Court. It decided that the parents' maintenance obligation towards an adult child still in training must be reasonable under the overall circumstances, particularly also in personal terms.
In the present case, this was to be denied, as there had been no more relations between the father and daughter since the divorce, because the daughter had culpably evaded the fulfillment of her family law obligations. Although the father had behaved correctly, the daughter had maintained her rejecting…