Chera B. v. Leake & Watts Servs., Inc. (In re Barack Darnell B.)

• Decision Date: 24 November 2015
• Citation: 2015 N.Y. Slip Op. 08621,19 N.Y.S.3d 410 (Mem),133 A.D.3d 529
• Parties: In re BARACK DARNELL B., a Dependent Child Under Eighteen Years of Age, etc., Chera B., Respondent–Appellant, v. Leake and Watts Services, Inc., Petitioner–Respondent.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

133 A.D.3d 529

19 N.Y.S.3d 410 (Mem)

2015 N.Y. Slip Op. 08621

In re BARACK DARNELL B., a Dependent Child Under Eighteen Years of Age, etc.,Chera B., Respondent–Appellant,

v.Leake and Watts Services, Inc., Petitioner–Respondent.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, New York.

Nov. 24, 2015.

Richard L. Herzfeld, P.C., New York (Richard L. Herzfeldof counsel), for appellant.

Law Offices of James M. Abramson, PLLC, New York (Dawn M. Orsatti of counsel), for respondent.

Tamara A. Steckler, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Patricia Collela of counsel), attorney for the child.

Opinion

Order, Family Court, Bronx County (Carol R. Sherman, J.), entered on or about December 1, 2014, which denied respondent mother's motion to vacate an order of disposition, entered upon her default, terminating her parental rights to the subject child and freeing the child for adoption, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Family Court properly denied the mother's motion to vacate, as she failed to present a reasonable excuse for her failure to appear at an adjourned dispositional hearing date, and she failed to provide a meritorious defense to the petition to terminate her parental rights (CPLR 5015[a][1]; Matter of Chelsea Antoinette A. [Anna S.],88 A.D.3d 627, 931 N.Y.S.2d 503 [1st Dept.2011]). The mother failed to provide any details or documentation to support her claim that she was incarcerated on the date of the hearing (Matter of Devon Dupree F.,298 A.D.2d 103, 103, 747 N.Y.S.2d 501 [1st Dept.2002]). Nor did she provide any explanation as to why she did not contact the court until the filing of her motion to vacate, nearly three months after her default (see id.).

The mother also failed to show that it was not in the child's best interests to terminate her parental rights and free the child for adoption by his foster mother, who has long cared for him and wants to adopt him (see Matter of Star Leslie W.,63 N.Y.2d 136, 147–148, 481 N.Y.S.2d 26, 470 N.E.2d 824 [1984]). The mother had abandoned the child and had four children previously removed from her care, and she failed to substantiate her assertions that she had completed a drug treatment program, had begun a domestic violence program, and had been participating in supervised visits with the child (Matter of Gloria Marie S.,55 A.D.3d 320, 321, 865 N.Y.S.2d 68 [1st Dept.2008], lv. dismissed 11 N.Y.3d 909, 873 N.Y.S.2d 523, 901 N.E.2d 1275 [2009]).

GONZALEZ, P.J., TOM, MAZZARELLI, MANZANET–DANIELS, JJ., concur.