The New Jersey Supreme Court has declined to hear a first impression case over whether a father who had little contact with his now-deceased son should be found to have “abandoned” him and consequently be barred from seeking a portion of his estate.
Last December, an Appellate Division panel, in a published ruling, said the father could not be prohibited from attempting to win a portion of the child’s estate because there was no evidence that he had “abandoned” or “willfully forsaken” the child, despite the fact that there was hardly any contact between the two for the last nine years of the child’s life.
