Articles Posted in Westchester County

A New York Family Lawyer said the complainant woman alleges in a claim filed on March 2, 2012, that on December 6, 2011 the Kings County Family Court granted her petition for modification of an Order of Support by Default. The court’s order, however, was erroneously associated with an old child support account number, since a clerk of that court refused to enter an updated number. The clerk’s action resulted in the complainant’s woman not receiving monthly child support payments of $714.00. In regard to damages, the complainant woman states that she is not getting her my son’s child support payments from the support collection unit.

A New York Custody Lawyer a pre-answer motion, the defendant moves to dismiss the claim on the ground that the Family Court lacks jurisdiction over it. Specifically, the defendant contends that the County Family Court does not have the authority to review a Family Court order, and does not have the jurisdiction to award equitable relief.

A Westchester County Family Lawyer said the Court of Claims has jurisdiction only over claims for money damages against the State of New York and a limited number of other entities specifically enumerated by statute. It has jurisdiction to hear and determine a claim of any person, corporation or municipality against the state for the appropriation of any real or personal property or any interest therein, for the breach of contract, express or implied, or for the torts of its officers or employees while acting as such officers or employees, providing the claimant complies with the limitations of this article. The statute further states that the Court of Claims has jurisdiction to render judgment in favor of the claimant or the state for such sum as should be paid by or to the state. Though not entirely clear from the contents of the claim, to the extent that the complainant seek a review of another Court’s rulings, the Court of Claims does not sit in review of Family Court determinations or correct errors made in its proceedings. To the extent that claimant requests that the Family Court direct that a clerical error be corrected so that she may receive support payments in the future, and remove an employee from the Family Court, such relief is essentially equitable in nature, which the County Family Court has no jurisdiction to grant.

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A New York Family Lawyer related child custody and visitation proceedings pursuant to Family Court Act article 6, and related family offense proceedings pursuant to Family Court Act article 8, a Kings County Family attorney said that the father appeals, as limited by his brief, from so much of an order of the Supreme Court, Kings County, as, after a hearing, denied his petition to modify a prior custody order of the Family Court, Kings County, awarding the parties joint legal custody of their child with physical custody to the mother and liberal visitation to the father, so as to award him sole custody of the child, granted the mother’s petition to modify the prior custody order so as to award her sole custody of the child and to establish a visitation schedule for the father, and dismissed his two family offense petitions.

In adjudicating custody and visitation rights, the most important factor to be considered is the best interests of the child, which requires evaluation of the “totality of the circumstances”. Here, the attorney for the child has advised this court of significant new developments which have occurred since the issuance of the order appealed from, including the commencement of a Family Court article 10 child protective proceeding against the mother, the filing of multiple domestic incident reports by both parents, and the lodging of complaints against both parents with the New York State Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment.

A New York Custody Lawyer said that in light of these new factual circumstances, which this Court may properly consider, the record before us is no longer sufficient to determine which custodial arrangement is in the child’s best interests. Accordingly, the matter must be remitted to the Supreme Court, Kings County, to be consolidated with the related petitions pending in the Family Court, Kings County, and for a new hearing and a new custody determination thereafter by the Family Court, Kings County. The Court expressed no opinion as to the appropriate custody determination.

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A New York Family Lawyer said the parties in this matter initiated a stipulation of settlement which was so ordered by the court. The stipulation provides that it will survive and shall not merge into any decision of divorce.

A New York Custody Lawyer said that also provides for joint legal custody of the parties’ children with residential/physical placement to the mother. It provides for therapeutic visitation between the father and the children with one physician as well as an extensive parenting schedule for the father. The stipulation further provides that the father will pay the child support and certain other expenses.

The father then moved for temporary sole custody of his four children and subsequently granted by the court.

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A New York Family Lawyer said a couple entered into a separation agreement and it was recited. The parties were aware of the condition of the child support law and their respective rights and obligations. However, they agreed to depart from the child support guidelines, noting that the mother was capable of providing basic support without assistance from the father, and that the child would spend about thirty-five percent of her time with her father during which time he would pay all her expenses. Further, the father will pay for the child’s clothing, with the mother’s assistance in shopping, and would fund a college trust.

Initially, a New York Child Custody Lawyer said the parties followed the terms of the separation agreement. The mother retained the primary custody while the child visited her father once a week and on alternate weekends. In addition, the child spent alternate school holidays and time with the father each summer. During the visits, the father will paid all expenses.

Previously, the three would take shopping trips for clothing, at the father’s expense. The compliance of the agreement broke down when the child refused to accompany her father on a summer trip he had planned, and instead returned to her mother’s home. After that, all significant visits between the father and his daughter came to an end, as well as the father’s financial support to his daughter.

A New York Family Lawyer said this is a visitation proceeding from which a father appeals from an order of the Family Court, Kings County dismissing his petition for visitation on the ground of lack of jurisdiction.

According to his petition and hearing testimony, he and his wife were divorced in November 1999 by a judgment of a New York court. A New York Custody Lawyer said the matrimonial court, inter alia, awarded custody of the parties’ children to the mother. The mother relocated with the children to the State of Pennsylvania, where they have lived since 2000. On or about 12 May 2004, the father filed the instant petition with the Family Court for his rights to visitation.

The court ruled that the Family Court did not have jurisdiction to make an initial child custody determination in relation withDomestic Relations Law § 76, because the children and their mother had lived in Pennsylvania for approximately four years, the Pennsylvania courts would have jurisdiction over the matter, and there was no indication that a court with jurisdiction had declined to exercise it because New York was the more appropriate forum. The court, however, stresses the importance of Domestic Relations Law § 76-a (1), i.e., a New York State court may have “exclusive, continuing jurisdiction” over a prior child custody determination made pursuant to Domestic Relations Law § 76.

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A New York Family Lawyer said the issue presented to the court is an interpretation of Section 521 of the Family Court Act, which states that whether the Family Court has jurisdiction when a non-resident petitioner child institutes a paternity proceeding against an alleged non-resident, who is found within a county of New York State.

A New York Custody Lawyer said the petitioner child was and still is a resident of New Jersey who has instituted a paternity proceeding against an alleged resident respondent father. The petitioner child, who has always been a non-resident, was born and has always lived in New Jersey. The respondent alleges that his only presence in New York State is that he works in Kings County.

A Westchester County Family Lawyer said the verified paternity petition was filed and a summons was issued and addressed to him and was sent by regular mail by the clerk of the court notifying him to appear on August 10, 1973. Upon the respondent father’s failure to appear a warrant was issued for his arrest.

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The father, who is thirty-two (32) years of age, and the mother, who is thirty (30) years of age, were married in New York in May 2002. A New York Family Lawyer said that while married, the father worked as a first grade teacher and the mother worked as a mandarin interpreter. The parties knew each other for only a short time prior to their marriage, at which point, the mother became pregnant with the parties’ child. In December 2002, the mother gave birth to a son. At the time of the son’s birth the parties were living separately; however, during the early days of the marriage, the parties lived at the mother’s relative’s residence in Brooklyn. A great amount of the parties’ marriage can be characterized as tumultuous and there were incidents of domestic violence.

On default this court awarded plaintiff-father full custody of the parties’ child whom is five (5) years of age. In August 2005, during a contested divorce proceeding, defendant-mother removed the parties’ child to California. A New York Custody Lawyer said the father commenced a divorce action on October 31, 2003, alleging cruel and inhuman treatment. Initially, the mother appeared pro se but later retained counsel. The mother was allegedly served with the summons with notice in an action for divorce on November 3, 2003, at Kings County Family Court.

A New York Child Custody Lawyer said that, in support of her request that she be awarded full legal custody of the child, the mother alleges that the father is merely trying to avoid paying child support and that he does not really care about custody. She argues that, until recently, the father lacked involvement with the child since the child was conceived. The mother contends that the father demanded a paternity test to prove his relationship to the child, but even after paternity was established, the father had little to do with the child. The mother avers that, as recently as 2005, the father was willing to forego custody of the child, in favor of the mother.

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This is an application by the defendant husband to modify a judgment of divorce in order to grant him child custody of his two daughters. A New York Family Lawyer said the divorce decree awarded custody of the children to the wife based upon a separation agreement which was incorporated into the decree.

Shortly after the decree was entered, the parties entered into an addendum to the separation agreement whereby child custody was changed to the defendant husband and his obligation for child support payments accordingly deleted. However, the judgment of divorce was never modified to reflect these changes.

Child custody of both daughters continued in the husband without interruption until the summer of 1980. A New York Child Custody Lawyer said that during the first half of this period, the wife exercised regular visitation in Rochester, New York, but she moved to the State of Texas. Following her relocation, she kept in contact with the children by telephone and had extended periods of visitation with them in Texas, primarily during the children’s summer vacations.

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A New York Family Lawyer said that, in a child support proceeding pursuant to Family Court Act article 4, the father appeals from an order of the Family Court, Westchester County, entered September 10, 2007, which granted his objections to so much of an order of the same court entered July 12, 2007, as, after a hearing, directed him to pay the sum of $2,373 in monthly child support, only to the extent of remitting the matter to the Support Magistrate, in effect, to articulate the manner in which the Support Magistrate calculated the amount of child support, and otherwise denied his objections.

A New York Custody Lawyer said that, on review of the father’s objections to the Support Magistrate’s order which, inter alia, directed him to pay child support in the sum of $2,373 per month, the Family Court remitted the matter to the Support Magistrate, in effect, to articulate the manner in which the Support Magistrate calculated that sum. At the same time, the Family Court indicated that, on the merits, the father’s objections to the sum of $2,373 in child support, as fixed by the Support Magistrate, did “not appear to be something that would change the amount of his obligation” once the Support Magistrate articulated her reasons for setting that amount.

The issue in this case is whether the court erred in ordering the father to pay the sum of $2,373 in monthly child support, only to the extent of remitting the matter to the Support Magistrate, in effect, to articulate the manner in which the Support Magistrate calculated the amount of child support, and otherwise denied his objections.

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