## Facts

- Karen McKinney and James Everett Richitelli married in 1976; their son, Michael Edward McKinney, was born July 30, 1977.
- The parties divorced in 1981; a custody order granted the mother primary custody, gave the father visitation, and required the father to pay $240 per month in child support starting October 1, 1980.
- The father made no child-support payments from January 1, 1981 through Michael’s eighteenth birthday (July 30, 1995) and had no contact or communication with Michael during that period.
- The father attributed the absence to incarceration and substance abuse, and he did not seek modification of the support order.
- In March 1997, after Michael (then 19) was diagnosed with cancer, the father contacted him; they later had visits and regular telephone calls.
- Between October 1997 and December 1998, the father sent Michael six checks totaling $3,150.
- Michael filed a medical malpractice action in May 1998 and died intestate on February 21, 1999; his mother became personal representative and amended the action to assert wrongful death.
- The mother filed a declaratory judgment action to determine whether the father could inherit from Michael’s estate and share in any wrongful death recovery under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 31A-2.

## Issues

1. Whether N.C. Gen. Stat. § 31A-2 bars a parent from intestate succession when the abandoned child dies after reaching majority.
2. Whether the father’s long-term nonpayment of support and total lack of contact constituted “willful abandon[ment]” of the child’s “care and maintenance” under § 31A-2.
3. Whether the father qualified for § 31A-2(1)’s exception by resuming care and maintenance at least one year before the child’s death and continuing it until death.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of North Carolina reversed the Court of Appeals and reinstated summary judgment for the mother.
- The court held § 31A-2 applies regardless of the child’s age at death.
- The court held the father willfully abandoned the child within the meaning of § 31A-2.
- The court held the father did not satisfy the statutory exception because his renewed relationship and payments occurred after the child had reached majority.
- The father was barred from inheriting from the intestate estate and from sharing in wrongful death proceeds.

## Legal Principles

- Under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 31A-2, a parent who willfully abandons the care and maintenance of a child is disqualified from inheriting from the child’s intestate estate.
- The statutory bar is not limited to cases where the child dies as a minor; it applies even when the child dies as an adult.
- “Care” concerns emotional and relational involvement; “maintenance” concerns providing financial support during the child’s minority.
- The § 31A-2(1) exception requires resumption of both care and maintenance at least one year before the child’s death and continuation until death; post-majority support or late resumption of a relationship does not satisfy the maintenance component.
- Summary judgment is proper when the evidence shows no genuine dispute that abandonment occurred and the exception cannot apply as a matter of law.

## Conclusion

The court held that a parent’s prolonged, willful failure to support or maintain a relationship with a child during minority can bar intestate succession even if the child later becomes an adult, and that renewed contact and payments begun after majority do not restore inheritance rights under § 31A-2’s exception.


McKinney v. Richitelli, 357 N.C. 483, 586 S.E.2d 258 (N.C. 2003)