Barry v. Glynn

• Decision Date: 26 June 1957
• Citation: 59 Misc.2d 75,297 N.Y.S.2d 786
• Parties: On the Petition of Antoinette BARRY, Petitioner, v. Thaddeus GLYNN, Respondent. In the Matter of Patricia Anne GLYNN, Born
• Court: New York Family Court

Page 786

297 N.Y.S.2d 786

59 Misc.2d 75

On the Petition of Antoinette BARRY, Petitioner, v. Thaddeus GLYNN, Respondent In the Matter of Patricia Anne GLYNN, Born June 26, 1957.

Family Court, Bronx County.

Jan. 31, 1969.

Benjamin B. Scherman, New York City, for petitioning mother.

Goodman & Samuelson by Meyer F. Goodman, of counsel, Freeport, fpr responding father.

Marian Beeler, Guardian ad litem, for the child.

DECISION OF THE COURT

MILLARD L. MIDONICK, Judge.

The mother of this child petitioned Supreme Court, Special Term, and upon this basis an order was issued requiring the father to show cause why the infant daughter of the parties should not be returned to the mother's custody.

The issues here concern the procedures and criteria and remedy to resolve custody and visitation affecting this child, as between her divorced parents.

On October 2, 1961, the parties entered into a separation agreement by which this child's custody was placed with the mother subject to visitation by father. On October 13, 1961 the Inferior Court, Geneva, State of Alabama, incorporated this custody agreement in its decree divorcing these parents at the suit of the mother. At that time the child was four years old, the only issue of this marriage.

The Special Term of the Supreme Court transferred custody of this child from father to mother on the basis of opposing affidavits, and on default of father, but its order of November 17, 1967 was reversed and remanded to the Special Term for a hearing. 29 A.D.2d 927, 289 N.Y.S.2d 267. The Special Term of the Supreme Court then referred the proceeding to the Family Court under Section 651 of the Family Court Act.

According to Section 654 of the Family Court Act, 'On a showing to the family court that a change of circumstances subsequent to the entry of an order of judgment by a court of competent jurisdiction not of the state of New York, fixing custody in an action for divorce, separation or annulment, the family court shall proceed to determine an application to modify the custodial arrangement provided in such order or judgment.'

While the above section defines this Court's powers when invoked on petitions initiated in the Family Court, this proceeding arose via Supreme Court referral under Section 651 of the Family Court Act wherein our jurisdiction embraces 'the same powers possessed by the supreme court in addition to (the Family Court's) own powers * * *.'

It is questionable whether any substantial distinction exists between the powers or views of Supreme Court and Family Court in such a situation as this. Certainly the best interests of the child must govern the disposition in both courts. Domestic Relations Law, Section 240; cf. Steinberg v. Steinberg, 18 N.Y.2d 492, 277 N.Y.S.2d 129, 223 N.E.2d 558. All statutes and decisional law must afford justice to this child as she grows older and her environment and needs may change with the passing years. To afford less to this child by adhering with rigidity to her custodial status fixed at the age of four, when she is now eleven and if her best interests require a change, would be to impair her welfare which is the paramount concern of this decision as to her custody. Neither Res judicata nor full faith and credit, nor the contract her parents made shortly before their divorce, can impair her due process right to a change of custody from one parent to the other, when her welfare requires a change. Adams v. Rhoades, 56 Misc.2d 249, 288 N.Y.S.2d 710; Domestic Relations Law, Section 240. The latter statute provides also that 'In all cases there shall be no prima facie right to the custody of the child in either parent.'

Following the guide lines of Kesseler v. Kesseler, 10 N.Y.2d 445, 225 N.Y.S.2d 1, 180 N.E.2d 402, (cf. Matter of Blaine, 54 Misc.2d 248, 282 N.Y.S.2d 359,) the court made available the investigations of the father's Island Park (Nassau County) home by the Family Court Probation Department of that County and of the mother's home in Bronx County by the Probation staff of the Bronx County Family Court, in the form of written reports to counsel for each of the parents and to the guardian ad litem appointed for the child. By stipulation of all parties, these reports were received in evidence. Then a study and evaluation by Dr. Melvin I. Fishman, Director of the Family Court Clinic for Mental Health at 80 Lafayette Street, County of New York, was ordered. Dr. Fishman, a consulting psychologist of great skill, learning, experience, and one who is disinterested, studied the probation reports, and interviewed each parent and the child. His report was, by stipulation of all parties in advance, received in evidence and made available to counsel and to the guardian ad litem. Having failed to ask the parties expressly to waive the right to call Dr. Fishman as a witness, however, I deemed myself constrained to permit the mother's attorney to call him, and he was examined under oath by all parties during the trial. The time taken from heavy schedules by Dr. Fishman or by any of our staff of psychiatrists and psychologists for testifying in courts about this city cannot often be spared unless the staff can be suitably expanded.

The probation reports and Dr. Fishman's report and opinion were unanimous as to facts and conclusions of fact; the homes of both parents and the objective capabilities of both parents (as well as that of the step-mother whom the father had married) constitute wholesome and proper environments for this child. The child Patty had thrived in both homes after the divorce. If there is any difference, her fine school record in public school until age nine when living with her mother, was slightly improved at parochial school while attending from father's home until recently. Both parents, and the stepmother as well, are of the same religious faith as Patty. The father has seen to it that the child was confirmed in her religious faith last year.

While the mother had the child attending public school in the Bronx, and the father had the child attending parochial school until this school year in Nassau County, the situation has now reversed itself in that a parochial school of the child's faith now offers an opening for her in the Bronx, thereas the child has been transferred this school year to public school within a few steps of her home in Nassau County. The change was made by the father recently in order to relieve Patty of a lengthy bus ride to and from parochial school. Having experienced both types of schools in Nassau, Patty testified in court that she preferred to stay in the public school. She does very well in all three schools, and would not doubt thrive in her educational program in the Bronx parochial school which she has never yet attended.

The separation agreement of seven years ago required parochial schooling, but the mother did not abide by this clause in view of no availability near her home until now, and now the father finds it unwise to compel the child to attend any longer such a school at a cost in time of about half an hour each way....