MELVILLE (AP) - A woman who claimed her mother was too strict to live with is not entitled to collect child support from her, a state appeals court has ruled.

The state Court of Appeals concluded that Maria Guevara moved out of her mother's Bellerose Terrace home voluntarily, so her mother was no longer obliged to support her.

Guevara moved out at 18 and sued her mother, Gina Ubillus, in 2005. Under state law, people between 18 and 21 can be eligible for child support if their parents throw them out or physically abuse them, according to the appeals court's recent decision.

Guevara, now 21, contended in court papers that she left "to escape an abusive, unloving and unsupportive environment." She has said her mother set her curfew too early and refused to give her money for restaurants and fashionable clothing.

A Nassau County support magistrate found no evidence that the daughter had been physically abused, and the appeals court upheld the magistrate's ruling.

Ubillus' lawyer, Sean Sabeti, praised the court's decision.

"The government cannot tell a person how to discipline their child," he said.

Guevara's lawyer's office declined to comment.