Matter of Thomas C. G. (Thomas J. G.)

2017 NY Slip Op 1354, 147 A.D.3d 1051, 46 N.Y.S.3d 910

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: February 22, 2017
• Docket: 2015-08044
• Status: Published

Opinion

Appeals by the father from four orders of disposition of the Family Court, Nassau County (Edmund M. Dane, J.) (one as to each child), all dated July 15, 2015. The orders, after a fact-finding hearing, found that the father abandoned the subject children, terminated the father’s parental rights, and transferred guardianship and custody of the subject children to the Nassau County Commissioner of Social Services for the purpose of adoption.

Ordered that the orders of disposition are affirmed, without costs or disbursements.

The petitioning agency commenced these proceedings to terminate the father’s parental rights to the subject children on the ground of abandonment. After a fact-finding hearing, the Family Court found that the father abandoned the children, terminated his parental rights, and transferred guardianship and custody of the children to the Nassau County Commissioner of Social Services for the purpose of adoption. The father appeals.

The petitioning agency established by clear and convincing evidence that the father abandoned the children by failing to visit or communicate with them or the petitioning agency during the six-month period immediately prior to the date on which the petitions were filed (see Social Services Law § 384-b [4] [b]; Matter of Sabina Jessica S., 32 AD3d 857, 858 [2006]).

Mastro, J.P., Babkin, Cohen and Brathwaite Nelson, JJ., concur.