Binong Xu v. Sullivan

91 A.D.3d 771, 936 N.Y.2d 569

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: January 17, 2012
• Status: Published

Opinion

The father withdrew his petition for custody during the course of the hearing. Therefore, his contentions regarding an award of joint custody are not properly before this Court.

Although “[supervised visitation is appropriately required only where it is established that unsupervised visitation would be detrimental to the child” (Matter of Bullinger v Costa, 63 AD3d 735, 735-736 [2009]; see Rosenberg v Rosenberg, 44 AD3d 1022, 1024 [2007]; Cervera v Bressler, 50 AD3d 837, 839 [2008]), a determination as to whether visitation should be supervised is a matter left to the court’s sound discretion, and its findings will not be disturbed on appeal unless they lack a sound basis in the record (see Matter of Lorraine D. v Widmack C., 79 AD3d 745, 745-746 [2010]; Matter of Smith v Roberts, 67 AD3d 688, 689 [2009]; Cervera v Bressler, 50 AD3d at 839). Here, the determination that visitation should be supervised was made after a hearing, and is supported by the evidence in the record, including expert opinion adduced after a forensic examination.

The parties’ remaining contentions are without merit, or need not be addressed in light of our determination. Rivera, J.E, Roman, Sgroi and Cohen, JJ., concur.