After a 19-year-old successfully sued her parents to pay $16,000 of her college tuition to Temple University, an appellate court says parents can't legally be viewed as a grown child's wallet.

The opinion is in response to Caitlyn Ricci whose grandparents financed her lawsuit against her divorced parents Michael Ricci and Maura McGarvey.

The appellate court wrote: 'A parent cannot be viewed as a 'wallet' and deprived of involvement of college decision making process.'

Caitlyn Ricci sued her parents to pay $16,000 of her college tuition in 2014

Caitlyn's parents Maura McGarvey (left) and Michael Ricci (right) filed an appeal saying it was unconstitutional that divorced parents should have to pay for their child's college

'Once the issue of emancipation is decided, an obligation to pay college costs for an academically motivated un-emancipated child requires a two-fold analysis.'

'Despite these very well-intentioned purposes [of the first judge's decision], the threshold legal question of emancipation, which must precede any analysis, was not examined.'

The court said the obligation depends on whether or not the parents are involved in the college making decision and whether or not they can afford it according to NJ.com.

Caitlyn won the case in 2014 based off of the 1982 ruling of Newburgh vs Arrigo which states divorced parents are legally obligated to pay for their child's tuition.

Her parents appealed the ruling claiming it was unconstitutional and refused to pay. Once they refused, Caitlyn sued them for contempt of court.

'That's fine, they can hold me in contempt of court,' her father told ABC6 after this week's hearing. 'They can do whatever they want. I'm not going to pay. I'm not going to give them any money until my daughter has a relationship with me and we start to heal our family.'

Caitlyn's father (pictured with her during her high school graduation) said he wanted a relationship with his daughter before he would pay

McGarvey told the court that her daughter left after refusing to do chores and follow a curfew, which they enforced after she repeatedly got in trouble for underage drinking.

Caitlyn's grandparents helped her sue her mother (pictured) and father for tuition

But Caitlyn said she moved partly because of a dispute about taking a summer class.

McGarvey explained they had enforced the summer class as punishment for Caitlyn getting kicked out of the Disney College Program - paid for by her and her ex-husband - for underage drinking.

She moved in with her paternal grandparents in Cherry Hills, New Jersey and, despite their fallout, Maura said she tried to reach out to Caitlyn - sending her letters and writing her poems - but she never heard back.

The parents claim she also purchased a car when she left the family home and subsequently demanded the money through her lawyers.

They eventually tried to file for an emancipation but the day before Mothers' Day last year, papers from Caitlyn's attorneys arrived at their home.

The girl's grandparents - who have not spoken to their son in years - paid for her to get a lawyer to sue her parents.

McGarvey's attorney told the publication that Caitlyn has reconciled with her parents after the legal battle.