The First Department vacated a custody order entered on default where a Florida mother cited safety fears, death threats, and inability to travel, and the child had long lived exclusively with her.
The First Department affirmed termination of a father’s parental rights based on abandonment and permanent neglect after sporadic contact, refusal of services, and no feasible plan for children living with grandparents.
The First Department affirmed termination of a father’s parental rights after diligent agency efforts and his failure to visit consistently or complete a tailored service plan.
The First Department upheld summary judgment on neglect where a mother acted aggressively and waved a lighter near an oxygen tank in front of her children, while prior unsafe conditions persisted.
The First Department affirmed termination of parental rights based on uncontroverted expert proof that the mother’s schizoaffective disorder made safe care impossible for the foreseeable future.
The First Department approved beneficiary changes and LLC reforms under Mental Hygiene Law Article 81 to preserve an incapacitated person’s longstanding estate plan.
The First Department affirmed termination where extensive agency assistance did not produce service-plan compliance, insight, or sustained visitation, and adoption served the child’s best interests.
The First Department affirmed termination of parental rights where the agency made diligent reunification efforts but the mother attended fewer than half of visits and therapy sessions.
The First Department exercised interest-of-justice discretion to send a 17-year-old’s weapon case to Family Court because prosecutors had not shown extraordinary circumstances overcoming Raise the Age’s removal presumption.
The First Department held that divorce-litigation funding with multiple unconditional repayment triggers was a loan and void because its 18.96% rate was usurious.
The First Department affirms Family Court findings of sexual abuse against a child’s mother’s intimate partner who served as weekend caretaker, upholding the court’s jurisdiction over him as a ‘legally responsible person’ and the admissibility of the seven-year-old’s forensic interview and hospital statements as corroborated evidence.
The Appellate Division, First Department (with dissent) upheld suspension of a father’s pendente lite child support obligation based on the mother’s continuing interference with the father’s parenting time, rejecting her motion to modify the 2021 order absent proof of meaningful resumption of visitation.
The First Department dismissed gender-motivated violence and intimate-recording claims in a divorce action, holding that the NYC Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act requires allegations of gender-based animus beyond possessive or jealous conduct, and that both NYC Administrative Code § 10-180 and Civil Rights Law § 52-b apply only to visual depictions — not audio recordings.
The First Department unanimously affirmed Family Court’s finding that appellant sexually abused D.C. and derivatively abused three other children in his care, holding that the child’s out-of-court statements were adequately corroborated by consistent prior disclosures, behavioral changes, and the respondent’s own admissions — no expert witness or physical injury evidence required.