Opinion
07-27-2016
In the Matter of Kayla BIENER, respondent-appellant, v. Yoel BIENER, appellant-respondent.
Yoel Biener, Spring Valley, N.Y., appellant-respondent pro se. William A. Gerard, Palisades, N.Y., for respondent-appellant. Shiza Khan, New City, N.Y., attorney for the children.
Yoel Biener, Spring Valley, N.Y., appellant-respondent pro se.
William A. Gerard, Palisades, N.Y., for respondent-appellant.
Shiza Khan, New City, N.Y., attorney for the children.
Opinion
Appeal and cross appeal from an order of the Family Court, Rockland County (Sherri L. Eisenpress, J.), dated May 7, 2015. The order, after a hearing, in effect, granted the father's petition for custody of the parties' children, denied the mother's petition for custody of the parties' children, and awarded unsupervised visitation to the mother.
ORDERED that the order is affirmed, without costs or disbursements.
The parties married in 2006, and had three children. They separated in 2012. They both filed petitions for custody, and, following a trial, the Family Court awarded custody to the father, and unsupervised visitation to the mother. The father appeals, arguing that the mother should not have unsupervised visits with the children. The mother cross-appeals, arguing that awarding the father custody was against the children's best interests.
In adjudicating custody and visitation rights, the most important factor to be considered is the best interests of the children (see Eschbach v. Eschbach, 56 N.Y.2d 167, 451 N.Y.S.2d 658, 436 N.E.2d 1260 ), which requires evaluation of the “totality of [the] circumstances” (Friederwitzer v. Friederwitzer, 55 N.Y.2d 89, 95–96, 447 N.Y.S.2d 893, 432 N.E.2d 765 ). Here, the Family Court fashioned an appropriate award of custody to the father, which provides for the mother's unsupervised visitation with the parties' children (see Jacobs v. Young, 107 A.D.3d 896, 969 N.Y.S.2d 70 ; Matter of Vialardi v. Vialardi, 67 A.D.3d 921, 888 N.Y.S.2d 419, 435 ; Matter of Edwards v. Rothschild, 60 A.D.3d 675, 677–678, 875 N.Y.S.2d 155 ; Allain v. Allain, 35 A.D.3d 513, 513–514, 826 N.Y.S.2d 411 ). In so doing, the court properly accorded sufficient weight to the children's need for stability and the impact of uprooting them from their current home, where they have lived since 2012 (see Matter of Sidorowicz v. Sidorowicz, 101 A.D.3d 737, 738, 955 N.Y.S.2d 194 ; Matter of Moran v. Cortez, 85 A.D.3d 795, 796–797, 925 N.Y.S.2d 539 ).
CHAMBERS, J.P., DICKERSON, DUFFY and BRATHWAITE NELSON, JJ., concur.