ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) A new ruling by a New Mexico appellate court says that people whose parent rights are terminated don't have to pay child support previously ordered under a divorce decree. A Court of Appeals panel's ruling in the case of a former Dona Ana County couple says termination of parental rights severs the parent-child relationship entirely.
The couple married in 1984 and divorced in 1990. The decree included an order that the man pay $600 a month in child support for the couple's two children. The Albuquerque Journal reports that his parental rights were terminated three years later, but a judge in 2010 ordered the man to pay $117,000 of overdue support.
The Court of Appeals ruling last week overturns that order.
