Commissioner of Welfare v. Richter

The mother of a sixteen-year-old boy in his second high school year has applied to the Court of Special Sessions for extension of an order of filiation made in 1938 to provide for continued support of the *1069child by his father beyond the age of sixteen. The statute, New York City Criminal Courts Act (§ 69, subd. 2) applicable within the city of New York, but not elsewhere in the State, provides that support “shall be ordered” until the child reaches the age of sixteen years, and it “ may be ordered ” up to the age of twenty-one years or longer “ for good cause shown ” and “ in the discretion of…