Woman wins $170K in child support for her 52-year-old daughter

SAN DIEGO, Cali. — A California woman has been awarded child support owed to her for decades.

According to ABC 10 in San Diego, Toni Anderson says her ex-husband chose to go to Canada rather than pay court-ordered child support in the early 1970s.

"I kind of put it on the back burner and just kind of forgot about it over the years," Anderson told ABC 10.

She supported her daughter while working as an interior designer in Los Angeles at a firm her daughter now runs.

Anderson told ABC 10 she rents her part of the house. And now that she's retired, money is tight. Then it dawned on her.

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"I realized in the middle of the night one night last year, 'Hey, there's no statute of limitations on child support.'"

Anderson looked up old court papers and last month notified her ex-husband, who's now living in Oregon: she wanted him to pay up. But the amount she was seeking now was way beyond what he was asked to pay nearly a half-century ago.

"He was only supposed to give me like a $160 a month. Well, that was 50 years ago. That today is a lot more money."

With accrued interest of 10 percent a year, what would have been a total payment of some $30,000 is now more than $170,000.

Information from ABC 10 was used in this report

Cox Media Group