Matter of Jamison v. Britton

Summary

The New York Appellate Division, Second Department, affirmed an order awarding legal and physical custody of a child to the mother and denying the paternal grandmother's custody petition. The court held that the grandmother failed to establish extraordinary circumstances sufficient to overcome the mother's superior parental right to custody.

Holdings

1. A natural parent has a superior right to custody over a nonparent, and that right may be denied only if the nonparent proves surrender, abandonment, persistent neglect, unfitness, or similar extraordinary circumstances.
2. A lengthy separation does not constitute an extraordinary circumstance where virtually all of the separation occurred while the parent was persistently attempting to regain custody.
3. The Family Court's credibility determinations will receive considerable deference on appeal and will be upheld where they have a sound and substantial basis in the record.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the paternal grandmother established extraordinary circumstances sufficient to overcome the mother's superior right to custody as a natural parent.
2. Whether the child's nearly five-year residence with the paternal grandmother constituted an extraordinary circumstance when the separation largely resulted from the mother's continuing efforts to regain custody.
3. Whether the Family Court's credibility determinations and rejection of allegations concerning the mother's unfitness had a sound and substantial basis in the record.

Disposition

affirmed