Colorado's Patchwork of Age-based Laws

• Publication year: 2001
• Pages: 135

30 Colo.Law. 135 Colorado Lawyer 2001.

2001, October, Pg. 135. Colorado's Patchwork of Age-Based Laws

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135

Vol. 30, No. 10, Pg. 135

The Colorado Lawyer
October 2001
Vol. 30, No. 10 [Page 135]

Specialty Law Columns
Family Law Newsletter
Colorado's Patchwork of Age-Based Laws
by James C. Bull

Each year, the Colorado General Assembly tinkers with age-based statutes. The usual object is to require juveniles to adhere to behavioral criteria mandated by adults Sometimes, the lawmakers impose rules on juveniles as the result of pressure from an important lobby group. Other laws are intended to legislate a separate kind of juvenile morality. As a result, Colorado has a patchwork quilt of laws affecting youth

Young people sometimes say that the laws are not fair as applied to them. Their arguments question the right of a state legislature to assign different responsibilities based on age. Nevertheless, classifications based on age are not per se unconstitutional.1 The Colorado Supreme Court has opined that the "rational basis test" requires a rational relationship between the law and legitimate government objectives. The law cannot be unreasonable arbitrary, or capricious in that context.2 For example, the Colorado Supreme Court declared an age-based disqualification for permanent disability payments to be unconstitutional because the court could find no rational connection between the age of the claimant and the impact of losing benefits.3 This article summarizes pertinent age-based laws and the authority for those laws.

Payment of Child Support

One age-based issue important to parents is child support. Child support is required for children generally through age nineteen. Factors such as a child's disability or continued attendance in high school can lengthen the period of support. An agreement extending the support will be enforced; otherwise, a child is deemed emancipated at age nineteen.4 A minor who marries (a status also affected by age) before age nineteen is considered emancipated for child support purposes even if a support order has been issued in a divorce agreement.5 Emancipation can occur based on the actions of a minor or by agreement.6

In an age-based case decided by the Colorado Court of Appeals,7 a sixteen-year-old daughter falsified her age in Oklahoma to marry without parental consent. She returned to Colorado with her new husband to live with her divorced mother. Subsequently, the marriage was annulled. The Court of Appeals held that the under-age marriage automatically terminated the duty of parental support. However, once the marriage was voided, the parents' duty of support revived, and child support payments were again required from her father.

Emancipation is sometimes confused with the notion of "legal age." A minor under eighteen years of age cannot make contracts, manage estates, sue in his or her own name, or be sued on a contract.8 A minor can void contracts made while under the age of eighteen even if the minor lied about his or her age.9 This seeming contradiction, which imposes a duty of child support for a child beyond the legal age, was explained by the Colorado Court of Appeals in In re Marriage of Weaver.10 In that case, the father asked the court to relieve him of responsibility for child support because his daughter had reached the age of eighteen and was of "legal age." He relied on several statutes, including CRS § 13-22-101, which provides:

Notwithstanding any other provision of law enacted or any judicial decision made prior to July 1, 1973, every person, otherwise competent, shall be deemed to be of full age at the age of eighteen years or older for the following specific purposes:

a) To enter into any legal contractual obligation and to be legally bound thereby to the full extent as any other adult person; but such obligation shall not be considered a family expense of the parents of the person who entered into the contract, under section 14-6-110, CRS 1973.

However, the court denied the relief that was sought, stating that "we perceive no general mandate in these statutes, which abrogates the duty of support a parent has toward his minor child,"11 and distinguishing the features of each of the statutes relied on by the father.

Liability for Acts of Children

A second age-based issue important to parents is liability for their child's acts. Absent negligent supervision, a parent is usually not responsible for the acts of children based solely on the relationship of parent to child.12 Conversely, children are not responsible for the acts of their parents simply because of that relationship, nor do they owe a duty of support to an elderly parent.13

The Colorado General Assembly has provided that a parent can be liable in an amount up to $3,500, plus legal fees, for the willful and malicious acts of a child under eighteen who is living with the parents. The acts must have caused bodily injury or damage to property.14 Simple negligence (an...