Matter of Gregory L.B. v Magdelena G.

Matter of Gregory L.B. v Magdelena G. 2009 NY Slip Op 09072 [68 AD3d 478] December 8, 2009 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, February 10, 2010

In the Matter of Gregory L.B., Respondent,
v
Magdelena G., Appellant.

—[*1] Howard M. Simms, New York, for appellant.

Rosemary Rivieccio, New York, for respondent.

Steven N. Feinman, White Plains, Law Guardian.

Order, Family Court, New York County (Elizabeth Barnett, Ref.), entered on or about March 4, 2008, which, inter alia, granted petitioner father's petition to modify an earlier order awarding joint legal custody of the subject child to the parties, with sole physical custody of the child to respondent mother and visitation to the father, and awarded the father sole legal and physical custody with visitation to the mother, and which denied the mother's petition for sole custody of the child, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

The record establishes that following the issuance of the joint custody order in March 2004, the mother wilfully violated multiple court orders by unilaterally deciding, inter alia, the child's education and medical needs, and also by continuously interfering with the father's visitation rights. The mother, unlike the father, did not cooperate with the attempts by a court appointed social worker and psychologist to facilitate the parties' coparenting arrangement, and her conduct and attitude indicated a continued unwillingness to support and encourage a relationship between the father and his son (see e.g. Matter of Mildred S.G. v Mark G., 62 AD3d 460 [2009]). Accordingly, the court's conclusion that an award of sole custody to the father [*2]would be in the best interests of the child was supported by a sound and substantial basis in the record, and is entitled to deference (see Eschbach v Eschbach, 56 NY2d 167, 173 [1982]). Concur—Tom, J.P., Nardelli, Renwick, Freedman and Roman, JJ.