AMICUS AI
Citation Codes
Equivalent Citations
citation codes
Attorney(S)
Judges
Are you a practicing lawyer?
Enhance your digital presence and reach by creating a Casemine profile.
Upload pleading to use the new AI search
Cites
Cited by
Citation Codes
Equivalent Citations
citation codes
Attorney(S)
Judges

IN THE MATTER OF KERRY J. (ANONYMOUS). TERRY J. (ANONYMOUS), APPELLANT; COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, ET AL., RESPONDENTS.

ORDERED that the order of fact-finding and disposition is affirmed, without costs or disbursements.

At a fact-finding and dispositional hearing, the Commissioner of Social Services of the City of New York (hereinafter the Commissioner) proved by clear and convincing evidence that the father had abandoned his child for a period of at least six months immediately preceding the filing of the instant petition (Social Services Law § 384-b[b]). According to the Commissioner's evidence, between June 22, 1998, and December 22, 1998, the father, who is serving a sentence of 20 years to life imprisonment at the Greenhaven Correctional Facility, made only a single telephone call to his son's caseworker regarding the child. Moreover, this solitary telephone call was in response to a telephone call made to the father by the agency. In the course of the conversation, the father consented to his son's adoption (although he later denied this), and he did not ask for an opportunity to visit with his son. The remaining contacts that the father allegedly tried to make with the child were either outside the applicable six-month period (see, Matter of Leabert V., 174 A.D.2d 883), or were inadequately proven.

In any event, even crediting the father's testimony that since his son's birth in August 1997 he has made three telephone inquiries regarding him and has sent him an occasional letter and gift, the attempted contacts were so sporadic and insubstantial as to be insufficient to defeat the court's finding of abandonment (see, e.g., Matter of Omar RR., 270 A.D.2d 588; Matter of Oneka O., 249 A.D.2d 233; Matter of Michelle S., 234 A.D.2d 800; Matter of Christine S., 203 A.D.2d 367; Matter of Zagary George Bayne G., 185 A.D.2d 320, 321; Matter of Crawford, 153 A.D.2d 108, 110).

ALTMAN, J.P., McGINITY, H. MILLER and FEUERSTEIN, JJ., concur.

Use AI to get other relevant cases.

Comments

MATTER OF KERRY J. TERRY J
(Nov 5, 2001)