Can a 22 year old child maintain some degree of relationship with her father?

In Law v. Law, a 22 year old child had unilaterally terminated her relationship with her father. She kept her father neither apprised of her academic pursuits nor maintained any contact with him. The court found a mature child should maintain some degree of relationship with her father when she expected to receive his ongoing support, absent a valid reason for the filial neglect.

In Marsland v. Gibb, the child continuously and completely rejected her father’s attempts to establish a father-daughter relationship. The father had received no communications from his daughter in nine years, despite his repeated attempts to contact her. She returned cards he sent and informed him that he was “not welcome” in her life. There was no conduct on the part of the father that justified the termination of the relationship. On that basis, Romilly J. found she was no longer a child of the marriage.