New York Law Journal, October 23, 2025 —
There are certain provisions that divorce lawyers regularly utilize when drafting separation agreements. Some of those provisions concern topics such as the distribution of marital assets, spousal maintenance, child support, and/or counsel fees. Drafting such provisions can become routine, but glossing over them is not advisable.
One such provision is regularly found in the “Article” of a separation agreement titled “Emancipation Events,” (i.e., an event upon which the noncustodial parent’s obligation to pay child support may terminate). The emancipation event that I will focus on in this article is often defined as a child having a permanent residence away from the custodial parent (the child support payee).
If, at the time a separation agreement is signed, Mom is the custodial parent and Dad is the noncustodial parent, you will likely see this enumerated emancipation event: permanent residence away from the residence of the Mother.
That all seems quite straightforward—at least I thought it was until I read E.B. v. A.F., 2025 NY Slip Op 51286(U) (Family Court, Nassau Cty. 2025). In E.B., the parties married in 2010, and entered into a separation agreement and divorced in 2019. The two children of the marriage are ages 14 and 11 according to the decision.
The parties’ separation agreement designated the Mother as the residential custodial parent and the Father was required to pay basic child support. Section XI of the separation agreement, titled “Emancipation of the Children” defined “Emancipation” to include “permanent residence away from the residence of the Wife.”
However, in 2024, the Father was granted temporary custody of the children; the Father also petitioned to suspend his child support payments due to the change in residential custody. The Father prevailed: he was granted residential custody and his basic child support obligations were terminated.