VICTORIA, British Columbia, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- An ailing 73-year-old Canadian woman is refusing to drop an 11-year-old lawsuit seeking monthly support from her children in British Columbia.
Under a rarely used law from the 1920s, parents can demand monthly financial support from their children, and Shirley Anderson launched the suit against her daughter and four sons in 2000, The (Vancouver) Province reported. Back then, the court ordered each of her children to pay her $10 a month. One of her sons has since died. Last week, she upped her demand to $750 per month from the surviving four.
She told the newspaper her children "are not destitute, they still take trips to Hawaii while I'm forced to live under the poverty line."
She has lupus and arthritis and requires chemotherapy she says she can't afford on her federal old age pension.
One of her sons, 47-year-old Ken Anderson, told a provincial Supreme Court judge in Victoria this week he wants the lawsuit dismissed.
"We have our own family and we haven't saved for our own retirement," the son said.
The judge made no immediate decision.
Similar old parental support laws exist in all provinces except Alberta, which dropped it in a 2005 legislative overhaul of family law, the Toronto Star said.
