Articles Posted in Queens

A New York Lawyer said in related proceedings pursuant to Family Court Act, the mother appeals from an order of the Family Court without a hearing, dismissed her petition to modify an order of visitation and an order of the same court, which, without a hearing, dismissed her petition to hold the father in contempt for his willful violation of an order of the same court.

A New York Custody Lawyer said the order dismissing the petition to modify the order of visitation is reversed, on the law, without costs or disbursements, that petition is reinstated, and the matter is remitted to the Family Court for a hearing to determine whether a modification of the visitation schedule is in the best interests of the child. The order dismissing the petition to hold the father in contempt is affirmed, without costs or disbursements.

The Family Court improperly dismissed the mother’s petition to modify the order of visitation. Modification of an existing custody or visitation arrangement is permissible only upon a showing that there has been a change in circumstances such that a modification is necessary to ensure the continued best interests and welfare of the child. Here, the mother met that burden, as the modification of visitation petition alleged that in the past year the father had missed 40-50% of his visits with the subject child. Therefore, the court reversed the order dismissing the petition to modify the order of visitation, reinstate that petition, and remit the matter to the Family Court for a hearing to determine whether a modification of the visitation schedule is in the best interests of the child.

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A New York Family Lawyer said a petition was filed by a couple to adopt a child born on August 9, 2004. Since September 22, 2004 when the adopted child was discharged from the hospital, on the basis of a petition that had been filed alleging that his biological mother had neglected him, has resided in the home of his maternal cousin, and her husband.

A New York Child Custody Lawyer said the adoption home study prepared by a social worker employed by the foster care agency that has care and custody of the adopted child describes him as a healthy seven-year-old boy with no special needs who is developing age-appropriately, and who is beginning regular second grade classes. The home study also reflects the fact that the adoptive couple has been married for over thirteen years and that they are both employed. Also residing in the home is the couple’s fifteen-year-old biological son. The social worker describes the biological son as healthy, doing well in school, and having a positive and loving relationship with the adopted child. The adoptive parents, their biological son and the adopted child reside in a three bedroom house in Suffolk County, New York.

A Queens Family Lawyer said the couple has been involved in the adopted child’s life since he was a baby. One can see that they love the child very much and that he means the world to them. They were observed by this worker to be very attentive and affectionate toward the adopted child, who lovingly refers to them as mommy and daddy. They share an inseparable bond with the adopted child, and have a good understanding of his needs. They are providing effectively for his physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. They understand and are willing to accept the moral and legal responsibilities of adoption. Their commitment to the child is deep rooted and they have made it clear that he knows that they are there for him. The adopted child feels the same strong sentiments toward this family and although too young to fully comprehend adoption, he is a happy, well-adjusted child for he knows that he is loved and wanted. Based on the overall progress this child has made in the home, it is therefore recommended that the application for adoption submitted by the couple be approved and that the adopted child be adopted by the caring family.

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A New York Family Lawyer said the child in question is mentally retarded and suffers from cerebral palsy and ataxia. A neglect finding was entered against the mother, and the child was placed in the custody of the father. Several months later, the child suffered a broken leg while under the care and supervision of the father’s friend, and he was then placed in foster care. Since that time, due to his multiple handicaps, the child has been placed into six different foster homes.

A permanently neglected child is defined as one who is in the care of an authorized agency and whose parent has failed for a period of more than one year substantially and continuously or repeatedly to maintain contact with or plan for the future of the child notwithstanding the agency’s diligent efforts to encourage and strengthen the parental relationship. It has been said that in a proceeding to terminate parental rights based on permanent neglect, the threshold consideration is whether the agency has discharged its statutory obligation to exercise diligent efforts to encourage and strengthen the parental relationship.

Moreover, a New York Child Custody Lawyer said when the child care agency has custody of the child and brings the proceeding to terminate parental rights, it has the burden of establishing its diligent efforts by clear and convincing evidence. An agency which has tried diligently to reunite a mother with her child but which is confronted by an uncooperative or indifferent parent is deemed to have fulfilled its duty.

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A New York Family Lawyer said an institution for children’s welfare requested to the court a decision without trial against a mother asserting that there are no genuine issues of fact. They also request for an order finding that the child is a neglected child and his sibling, a derivatively neglected child.

In support of the motion, the complainant submitted the transcript from a criminal court proceeding, containing the mother’s allocution to the endangering of the welfare of a child and her acknowledgment that on one occasion she hit her child with an open hand causing a bruise or a black eye, but no injury.

The aforementioned matter started when the institution filed a neglect petitions against a mother alleging that her child was a neglected child because the mother inflicted excessive corporal punishment against him, causing the child to sustain a bruises to his right eye. In addition, the petitions allege that the child reported that his mother has beaten him on prior occasions with a belt.

A permanent neglect petition was filed by the petitioner adoption service. At that time the child was four years old; for the preceding two and a half years she had been in the custody first of the Bureau of Child Welfare, and thereafter, with the adoption. The child, who is now seven years old, has, since the latter date, been in the care of the same foster parents.

A New York Family Lawyer said that the voluminous record which covers 19 hearings, beginning on June 1969, portrays a picture of an aggressive, paranoid and immature mother who interspersed long periods of neglect by failure to maintain contact with the supervising agency for visitation with sudden, hysterical demands that the child be returned to her. Attempts by caseworkers to contact the respondent were frustrated by her constant changes of address, most of which were not communicated to the agency.

On one occasion, when the Bureau of Child Welfare permitted the child to be taken to the respondent’s home, the infant was admitted to a hospital as a battered child four days later. Thereafter, or in August 1971, the Family Court judge, in response to the respondent’s application for the immediate return of the child, ordered the adoption service to permit 15 visits by the respondent up to October 1971; on that latter date she was to be permitted to take the child home for the weekend. Nevertheless, the respondent made only two regular visits prior to October 1; on that date she insisted on taking the child home a week earlier than scheduled. She was permitted to do so, but refused to return the child on the following Monday. This resulted in the issuance of a warrant and the arrest of the respondent.

A man is the biological father of a boy who was born in 1995. A New York Family Lawyer said the two have never lived together. Three weeks following his birth, the child was removed from his mother’s home by the Child Protective Services Unit of the County Department of Social Services (DSS) due to the fact that the mother had used cocaine during her pregnancy and the child tested positive for cocaine at birth. The mother was found to have neglected the child and her parental rights were ultimately terminated upon a finding of abandonment.

A New York Custody Lawyer said within one week following the child’s removal by DSS, the father filed the first of a series of petitions seeking child custody. A July 6, 1995 consent order granted the father supervised visits with the child upon his completion of a substance abuse evaluation and also provided that the father was to cooperate in obtaining a psychological assessment. On March 16, 1998, the father filed the petition in proceeding No. 1.

At the initial appearance on the petition following the appointment of counsel for the father, Family Court adjourned the matter so that the father could undergo a psychological evaluation. At the next appearance, DSS recommended, and Family Court ordered, that an extensive family assessment be conducted at Parsons Child and Family Center and also that the father submits to a full mental health evaluation. Although expressing considerable frustration with the repeated obstacles that Family Court was placing in his path, the father agreed to cooperate.

A New York Family Lawyer said this is a proceeding for support pursuant to Article 4 of the Family Court Act. The clerk of the court mailed a summons to the respondent, directing him to appear for a hearing. No attempt at personal or substituted service was made prior to the mailing of the summons.

A New York Custody Lawyer said that the respondent has appeared specially and moved, pursuant to Section 3211(a) (8) of the Civil Practice Law and Rules, to dismiss the petition on the ground that service by mail in the first instance does not comply with the requirements of Section 427 of the Family Court

A Queens Child Custody Lawyer said Section 427 provides as follows: ‘(a) Service of a summons and petition shall be made by delivery of a true copy thereof to the person summoned at least three days before the time stated therein for appearance. If so requested by the respondent or by a parent or other person legally responsible for his care, the court shall not proceed with the hearing or proceeding earlier than seven days after such service.

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Plaintiff having failed to demonstrate that she attempted to exhaust other, less drastic, remedies to enforce the pendente lite support order, she is not entitled to an order holding defendant in contempt. Defendant’s net worth statement indicates that he has assets within the jurisdiction available to satisfy his current obligations

A New York Family Lawyer said that defendant, in his net worth statement, alleges that he has “no regular salary–Past 3 months’ averaged $1,666.00.” Defendant is 45 years old, in good health, has a Master’s Degree in Music, and is self-employed by a corporation in which he holds 95% of the stock. The court finds defendant’s claimed income incredible, since he lists expenses of $2,992 a month, but income of only $1,666. Furthermore, it would appear the rabbinical court also found that defendant’s ability to pay child support exceeded his claimed income, since it found him to be liable for child support of $250 a week and school tuition of $1,666 a month. Defendant has a 35% interest in a $1.3 million shopping center, and paid his attorneys a retainer of $3,500. Defendant fails to submit tax returns or any other documents which would support his claimed income, and it is apparent that defendant is able to determine the amount of salary he will receive from his corporation. Nevertheless, there is simply no evidence that defendant earns the $100,000 p.a. claimed by plaintiff, and in view of the defendant’s now having submitted a net worth statement, his child support obligation will be reduced to basic child support of $2,500 per month, a sum very close to that determined to be appropriate, as well as payment of unreimbursed medical costs. In the event it is determined at trial that defendant’s income is higher than alleged in the Net Worth Statement, the amount of child support will be adjusted retroactively to comply with Domestic Relations Law § 240(1-b).

Defendant now seeks to confirm the arbitration award of the religious tribunal, which is opposed by plaintiff on public policy grounds.

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In a child support proceeding, the father appeals from an order of the Family Court, Westchester County, which denied his objections to so much of an order of the same court, as, after a hearing, granted those branches of the mother’s cross petition which were, in effect, for arrears of child support and additional child support based on the father’s past employment bonuses, and for reimbursement of certain college expenses, and to modify the parties’ stipulation of settlement, which was incorporated but not merged into the judgment of divorce, to require the father to pay 50% of future college expenses, and for an award of an attorney’s fee, fixed his arrears for child support and additional child support based on the father’s past employment bonuses, and for reimbursement of certain college expenses in the sum of $11,154.81, awarded the mother an attorney’s fee in the sum of $2,250, and directed him to pay 50% of future college expenses.

A New York Family Lawyer said that the mother and father were divorced in August 1995, which incorporated, but did not merge, a separation agreement. Pursuant to the separation agreement, the father was required to pay the mother child support which was, at the time of the filing of the instant petition and cross petition, in the sum of $1,298 per month. He also was required to pay 50% of the children’s health insurance premiums and unreimbursed medical expenses and, as “additional child support,” 50% of any bonuses received from his employment.

In January 2007 a New York Custody Lawyer said the father filed a petition for a temporary downward modification of his child support obligation during a period of unemployment. The mother filed a cross petition, inter alia, in effect, for arrears of child support and additional child support based on the father’s past employment bonuses, and for reimbursement of certain college expenses, and to modify the parties’ stipulation of settlement, which was incorporated but not merged into the judgment of divorce, to require the father to pay 50% of future college expenses, and for an award of an attorney’s fee. Following a hearing, in an order, the Support Magistrate granted the father’s petition, temporarily reducing the father’s child support obligation to the sum of $439 per month, from January through April 2007, during a period of unemployment. The Support Magistrate also granted those branches of the mother’s cross petition which were, in effect, for child support arrears and additional child support based on the father’s past employment bonuses, and for reimbursement of certain college expenses, fixed the father’s obligation in the sum of $11,154.81, awarded the mother an attorney’s fee in the sum of $2,250, and directed the father to pay 50% of future college expenses for the subject children. The Family Court denied the father’s objections to so much of the Support Magistrate’s order as granted the mother relief on her cross petition.

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This proceeding concerns the petition of an Adoption Service for commitment of a minor to its custody under Section 384 of the Social Services Law. Petitioner commenced this proceeding sometime in December 1972. A New York Family Lawyer said the natural mother of the infant was served and defaults in this proceeding. The natural father was also named as a respondent at the direction of the court and was served with citation. In compliance with a Court’s ruling, a hearing was and several months were required for the submission of briefs. Under jurisprudence, an unwed father’s right to custody of his child cannot be terminated without the hearing requirements of due process of law. That case, in fact, involved an unwed father who had raised his children in his own home.

A New York Family lawyer said that the natural father, who lived out-of-wedlock with the natural mother for four months prior to the birth of this boy, has moved to dismiss the petition of the Adoption Service, on the ground that the petitioner failed to prove or plead that respondent father abandoned his infant son. The child was born out-of-wedlock and ten days after his birth, the natural mother voluntarily placed the child with the Commissioner of Social Services of the City of New York for temporary foster care. The father’s name does not appear on the birth certificate. The infant has remained in foster care with the same foster parents from November 1967 to this date. The infant believes that his foster family is his only family and has no knowledge or recall of his natural parents. At the time of the birth of this infant, respondent father was married to a woman other than the mother of this infant. Thereafter, respondent acknowledged paternity and agreed in writing that he would support his child. However, respondent’s salary has been insufficient to cover any support for many years and, in any event, he has made no such payments. The natural mother never contributed towards support. A New York Custody Lawyer said the court finds this long-term failure of support as evidence of abandonment as defined by Social Services Law § 371: “Abandoned child’ means a child who is abandoned or deserted in any place by both parents and left (c) without being visited or having payments made toward his support, for a period of at least six months, by his parent, guardian or other lawful custodian without good reason.’

A Staten Island Family Lawyer said a child never lived in the home of the natural parents, although the father claims that he objected to the natural mother’s refusal to bring the baby home. Curiously, respondent could not recall whether or not the natural mother actually resided with him after the birth. Respondent also testified that he did not inquire as to the whereabouts of the baby, although he claims to have visited the mother in the hospital during her confinement. In July 1968, the agency interviewed the father and, upon his insistence, permitted him to visit the child twice; once he was accompanied by the natural mother. Agency records of 1968 reflect that the father was desirous of custody of his child but that he had no plans or means to accomplish this purpose. Thus, the agency therefore determined on a plan for adoption.

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