Can I sue my wealthy daughter for financial help?
Question Details:
My daughter has helped me minimally financially, but now refuses to help me at all. I am homeless and she recently inherited 5M from her father's estate. Her father's side of the family thinks it is her responsibility to help me. She disagrees. I raised her for 18 years then sent her off to college. She never wanted for anything and had lots of activities that I paid for. I was very involved in her life. Now she doesn't want to have anything to do with me since I lost everything when my business went bankrupt.
Unfortunately, if the money left to her didn't include any directives to help you, she has no legal obligation to help you.
Have you considered possibly talking again to her father's side of the family and see if they can persuade her? If not, you may try to talk with social services; perhaps they can approach her for some help or to reunite the two of you. Legal aid may be a great starting place, as well. Maybe they can (and it is free) can do a litle digging to see what they can find. Hawaii has some great legal aid programs. You can try the Legal aid Society of Hawaii.
I take it that you are long since divorced from your daughter's late father.
The law doesn't ordinarily require gratitude on the part of children, for the care and support that the law requires parents to provide. Whatever you did for her, it does not create a debt from her to you, that a court will enforce (unless, of course, something in writing is signed after the child reaches adulthood). It is, and probably will always be, a one-way street.
There's no legal grounds for you to sue your daughter, based on what you've written here.
