Matter of St. Lawrence County Support Collection Unit v Griffith

Matter of St. Lawrence County Support Collection Unit v Griffith 2012 NY Slip Op 08610 Decided on December 13, 2012 Appellate Division, Third Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.

Decided and Entered: December 13, 2012
514361

[*1]In the Matter of ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY SUPPORT COLLECTION UNIT, on Behalf of SARAH L. GRIFFITH, Respondent,

v

DAVID L. GRIFFITH, Appellant.

Calendar Date: November 14, 2012
Before: Rose, J.P., Lahtinen, Spain, Kavanagh and McCarthy, JJ.


Lisa A. Burgess, Indian Lake, for appellant.
Amy V. Casiuk, St. Lawrence County Department of
Social Services, Canton, for respondent.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER



Lahtinen, J.

Appeal from an order of the Family Court of St. Lawrence County (Morris, J.), entered April 2, 2012, which granted petitioner's application, in a proceeding pursuant to Family Ct Act article 4, to revoke respondent's suspended sentence of incarceration.

Following respondent's failure to pay ordered child support, petitioner commenced a proceeding pursuant to Family Ct Act article 4 seeking to find respondent in willful violation of the court's order and have him incarcerated for contempt. The record indicates that, in 2006, respondent was found to be in willful violation of his obligation to pay child support and, at that time a 30-day jail sentence was suspended. In an October 2007 order, that suspension was vacated and respondent was committed to serve a period of 10 days in jail with the remaining 20 days of the sentence suspended. Subsequently, as a result of respondent's continued noncompliance, further applications by petitioner were made to Family Court for relief, with the most recent order continuing the suspended 20-day jail sentence entered on July 1, 2009. That order directed respondent to pay $50 per week towards the accumulated child support arrears. No appeal was taken from that order.

Thereafter, alleging that respondent had stopped making payments pursuant to the July [*2]2009 order, petitioner applied to Family Court in November 2011 for an order revoking respondent's suspended sentence of incarceration. Following an April 2, 2012 hearing, at which respondent was represented by counsel, the court revoked the suspension and directed that respondent be immediately committed to jail to serve the 20-day jail term. This appeal followed.

Inasmuch as respondent's appeal is from the order revoking the suspension of his sentence and, according to petitioner, his 20-day jail term has already been served, we conclude that the instant appeal is moot and must be dismissed (see Matter of Franklin County Dept. of Social Servs. v Durant, 54 AD3d 1139, 1140 [2008]; Matter of St. Lawrence County Dept. of Social Servs. v Pratt, 24 AD3d 1050, [2005], lv denied 6 NY3d 713 [2006]).

Rose, J.P., Spain, Kavanagh and McCarthy, JJ., concur.

ORDERED that the appeal is dismissed, as moot, without costs.