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In December 1977, New York couple Phillip and Frances Ragusa’s divorce was finalised with Phillip being ordered to pay Frances $14,393.57 in child support. Unfortunately, Phillip failed to provide Frances with this payment and, following her having discovered that this judgement was still enforceable in 2002, Frances began to pursue her former husband for this payment which, as a result of interest, now stands at $100,000. The case led Mrs Ragusa to contact her former husband for the first time in several years in the hope of resolving matter. “I begged him to settle,” she told the New York Post, going on to add: “don’t let this case go to trial, because I'm going to win punitive damages.' I told him, 'There is a legal judgment, and if you think I'm going to forget it, Phil, you're stuck on stupid.” Mr Ragusa was not interested in settling, however, and upon hearing his ex-wife’s voice began crying before hanging up. Mrs Ragusa remains undeterred, however, and last month gave a deposition in the case at Brooklyn Supreme Court informing the paper that: “I want justice, that’s all. My family did not deserve what he and the system did to us”. Legal disputes between the couple began in 1987 following Mr Ragusa having sold the couples former family home for $350,000. Mrs Ragusa claims that she was owed £87,000 from this sale, yet received nothing. She also informed the paper that the negative feelings she harbours also stem from the fact that she needed to rely in welfare payments for a short time following the couple’s divorce. Her lawyer, John Russo, informed the Post that this was one of the most bizarre cases he had ever dealt with. "There's no doubt that this is an oddball case. A judgment so old is not usually enforceable, but with a child-support judgment, it is.” Mrs Ragusa is also currently in the process of suing her mother in law’s estate which – following her death in 2009 – is currently administered by Mr Ragusa.