Matter of Kenneth C. (Gertrude B.)

2017 NY Slip Op 1687, 148 A.D.3d 799, 48 N.Y.S.3d 749

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: March 8, 2017
• Docket: 2016-02946
• Status: Published

Opinion

Appeal by the mother from an order of fact-finding and disposition of the Family Court, Suffolk County (Caren Loguercio, J.), dated March 4, 2016. The order, made after a fact-finding hearing, inter alia, found that the mother neglected the subject children. The notice of appeal from an order of fact-finding also dated March 4, 2016, is deemed to be a notice of appeal from the order of fact-finding and disposition (see CPLR 5512 [a]).

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

The Family Court’s finding of neglect is supported by a preponderance of the evidence (see Family Ct Act §§ 1012 [f] [i] [B]; 1046 [a] [iii]; [b] [i]; Matter of Audrey K. [Erik K.], 108 AD3d 717 [2013]). Contrary to the mother’s contention, the evidence adduced at the fact-finding hearing of her repeated misuse of drugs and alcohol, her repeated positive drug tests for marijuana and cocaine, and her failure to regularly attend a substance abuse treatment program established a prima facie case of neglect (see Family Ct Act § 1046 [a] [iii]). Therefore, neither actual impairment of the children’s physical, mental, or emotional condition, nor specific risk of impairment, needed to be established (see Matter of Audrey K. [Erik K.], 108 AD3d 717 [2013]; Matter of Sadiq H. [Karl H.], 81 AD3d 647 [2011]). Accordingly, the court properly found that the mother neglected the children.

Mastro, J.P., Leventhal, Barros and Brathwaite Nelson, JJ., concur.