If revenge is a dish best served cold, the justice this mom received must have been frosty and delicious. After all, it's not often that you hear about anybody winning a case almost 50 years after the initial offense.
The good news is that this mom prevailed — and the better news is that she might just help other single parents out too.
Back in the early 1970s, Toni and her husband at the time got divorced.
Her husband chose to move to Canada rather than pay child support for their 3-year-old daughter. "He made the first payment, $160," she told Good Morning America. "I was so excited, I will never forget. I deposited it in my account and it bounced."
"I kind of put it on the back burner and just kind of forgot about it over the years," she told ABC 10.
Instead, she put her energy into running her interior design business and raising her daughter on her own.
Her ex was supposed to be paying $210 a month for a period of 30 months, and $160 per month after that until their daughter turned 21.
"I struggled a lot," Toni said. "I lived from paycheck to paycheck and I had to take a couple jobs, and it was a detriment to my daughter because I wasn't really there for her."
According to Five Thirty Eight, in 2011, custodial mothers in the U.S. were owed $12.1 billion in child support, and "moms who are owed child support outnumber dads almost 9 to 1."
But it dawned on her that she might be able to recoup that child support after all. "I realized in the middle of the night one night last year, 'Hey, there's no statute of limitations on child support."
Which is true of California, where Toni lives. Some other states only give parents 10 years to file a complaint.
When the math was done on what he owed after interest and legal fees, those $160 payments really added up.
What would have been about $35,000 had he paid it in the first place now tallied more than $170,000. Naturally, she got her lawyer involved.
Through his attorney, he told Good Morning America that "I was glad to pay Ms. Anderson the child support that was owed and I wish her only the best in the future...when Ms. Anderson filed her motion in 2018 to collect the $35,000 in principal plus interest, I hired a private investigator to locate her so I could offer her payment. I am pleased we were able to reach an agreement."
She wants other stiffed parents out there to know their rights and understand that they can still get justice — in some cases, even if half a century has passed.
"One of Ms. Anderson's goals in pursuing this matter was to pave a path for other single parents out there who believe they have no recourse when it comes to facing an ex who has evaded their financial responsibilities under the law," her attorney told People.
