Yandon v. Boisvert, 517494

• Decision Date: 16 July 2015
• Docket Number: 517494
• Citation: 2015 NY Slip Op 06177
• Parties: In the Matter of ELEANOR P. YANDON, Respondent, v. TORI J. BOISVERT, Appellant, et al., Respondent. (And Another Related Proceeding.)
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

2015 NY Slip Op 06177

In the Matter of ELEANOR P. YANDON, Respondent,
v.
TORI J. BOISVERT, Appellant, et al., Respondent.
(And Another Related Proceeding.)

517494

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York

Calendar Date: June 1, 2015
Decided and Entered: July 16, 2015

Before: Lahtinen, J.P., Lynch, Devine and Clark, JJ.

Reginald H. Bedell, Elizabethtown, for appellant.

Claudia A. Russell, Willsboro, for respondent.

David Rudgers, Ticonderoga, attorney for the child.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

Lahtinen, J.P.

Appeal from an order of the Family Court of Essex County (Meyer, J.), entered August 28, 2013, which, among other things, granted petitioner's application, in a proceeding pursuant to Family Ct Act article 6, to modify a prior order of custody and visitation.

Petitioner (hereinafter the grandmother) is the maternal grandmother of a child (born in 2008) whose parents are respondent Ivy L. Boisvert (hereinafter the mother) and respondent Tori J. Boisvert (hereinafter the father). The parents had repeatedly split, reconciled and moved resulting in the child frequently residing with the grandmother for months at a time. In July 2011, an order entered on consent provided for respondents to have joint legal and physical custody and the grandmother to have visitation. By January 2012, the mother and the child were residing with the grandmother, but the mother later moved out leaving the child with the grandmother. Petitions were filed, including the grandmother seeking custody in February 2012. Following a hearing, Family Court rendered a detailed decision in which it concluded that the grandmother had established extraordinary circumstances and, upon then considering the best interests of the child, the court awarded the grandmother sole legal and primary physical custody with liberal visitation times for the mother and the father. The father appeals, arguing that the

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finding of extraordinary circumstances lacked a sound and substantial basis in the record.

"It is well settled that a parent has a claim of custody of his or her child, superior to that of all others, in the absence of surrender,...