Matter of O'Keefe v. Ky

129 A.D.3d 731, 8 N.Y.S.3d 921

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: June 3, 2015
• Docket: 2014-08797
• Status: Published

Opinion

Appeal from an order of the Family Court, Suffolk County (David Freundlich, J.), dated August 12, 2014. The order denied the father’s motion pursuant to CPLR 5015 (a) (1) to vacate a prior order of that court dated December 6, 2013, which, upon the father’s failure to appear at a hearing, granted the mother’s petition to modify a prior order of that court (Bernard Cheng, J.) dated November 1, 2012, so as to limit the father’s visitation with the subject children to therapeutically supervised visitation.

Ordered that the order dated August 12, 2014, is affirmed, without costs or disbursements.

The Family Court providently exercised its discretion in denying the father’s motion to vacate a prior order dated December 6, 2013, made upon his failure to appear at a hearing, which granted the mother’s petition to limit the father’s visitation with the subject children to therapeutically supervised visitation. The record supports the Family Court’s determination that the father failed to establish either a reasonable excuse for his default or a potentially meritorious defense to the mother’s petition (see Matter of Xiao-Lan Ma v Washington, 127 AD3d 982 [2015]; Matter of Kenneth S. v Bethzaida P., 95 AD3d 1022, 1023 [2012]).

Dillon, J.P., Dickerson, Chambers and Barros, JJ., concur.