Void Provision

The Mississippi Supreme Court handed down Ravenstein v. Hawkins last week.  A copy of the opinion is located here.  It is a good read on the responsibility of a parent to support a disabled child.  The law still seems to remain at the time that there is no duty to support an adult disabled child and the court does not have the authority to order it beyond age twenty-one (21).    Larry Primeaux wrote an excellent discussion on this topic located here.  To me, one interesting side issue in this deals with the ability to attack a void provision in a prior court order.  This case seems to indicate that even if the provision is void, it still must be attacked within a reasonable time.  This appears to overturn some earlier cases that say a void provision of a prior court order can be attacked anytime.  See McManus v. Howard, 569 so.2d 1213, 1216 (Miss. 1990) and Lawrence v. Lawrence, 574 So.2d 1376, 1381 (Miss. 1991).   It appears the ability to set the provision aside will hang on what is a "reasonable" time.