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Landau v. Landau

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department
Apr 3, 1995
214 A.D.2d 541 (N.Y. App. Div. 1995)

Opinion

April 3, 1995

Appeal from the Supreme Court, Westchester County (Donovan, J.).


Ordered that the judgment and order are affirmed insofar as appealed from, with one bill of costs.

Upon our review of the record, we find no reason to disturb the Supreme Court's award of sole custody of the child to the father (see, Eschbach v Eschbach, 56 N.Y.2d 167; Friederwitzer v Friederwitzer, 55 N.Y.2d 89). After performing comprehensive evaluations of the parties, a court-appointed psychiatrist and a court-appointed psychologist both concluded that the father was the more appropriate custodial parent. The mother was found to suffer from, among other things, severe depression, persecutorial delusions, extreme emotional lability (openess to change), exceedingly poor judgment, and distortion of reality, all of which impaired her parenting skills. Her unfounded allegations that the father had sexually abused the child and physically abused her are further evidence of her unfitness to act as the custodial parent (see, Nir v Nir, 172 A.D.2d 651).

Contrary to the mother's contention, the court did not err in requiring her to undergo psychotherapy as a condition to any expanded or overnight visitation. She was awarded unconditional daytime visitation and the evidence before the court demonstrates that, absent therapeutic intervention, further visitation would not be in the child's best interests (see, Ramshaw v Ramshaw, 186 A.D.2d 243; Matter of Hughes v Wiegman, 150 A.D.2d 449; cf., Matter of Tito G. v Thelma G., 187 A.D.2d 651; Nacson v Nacson, 166 A.D.2d 510). Moreover, the court did not err in temporarily suspending all visitation until the mother removed herself from a neighbor's home across the street from the marital residence.

We do not find any error in the provision of the judgment which ordered the mother to pay her pro rata share of the child's medical, dental, pharmaceutical, psychiatric and/or psychological, child care, and school tuition expenses (see, Domestic Relations Law § 240 [1-b] [c] [5]; Matter of Cassano v Cassano, 203 A.D.2d 563).

The mother's remaining contentions are without merit. Miller, J.P., O'Brien, Krausman and Florio, JJ., concur.


Summaries of

Landau v. Landau

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department
Apr 3, 1995
214 A.D.2d 541 (N.Y. App. Div. 1995)
Case details for

Landau v. Landau

Case Details

Full title:ERIKA LANDAU, Appellant, v. STEVEN LANDAU, Respondent

Court:Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department

Date published: Apr 3, 1995

Citations

214 A.D.2d 541 (N.Y. App. Div. 1995)
625 N.Y.S.2d 239

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