| Matter of Gloria Marie S. |
| 2008 NY Slip Op 07558 [55 AD3d 320] |
| October 7, 2008 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| In the Matter of Gloria Marie S. and Another, Children Alleged tobe Abandoned. Alex S., Appellant; Leake & Watts Services, Inc., Respondent, et al.,Respondent. |
—[*1] Rosin Steinhagen Mendel, New York (Carmen Restivo of counsel), for Leake & WattsServices, Inc., respondent. Tamara A. Steckler, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Gary Solomon of counsel), LawGuardian.
Orders, Family Court, Bronx County (Allen Alpert, J.), entered on or about May 2, 2007,which denied respondent father Alex S.'s motion to vacate a prior dispositional order entered onor about July 11, 2006, which, upon his default in appearing at the underlying fact-finding anddispositional hearings, terminated his parental rights to the subject children on the ground ofabandonment and committed their custody to petitioner and the Commissioner of theAdministration for Children's Services for the purpose of adoption, unanimously affirmed,without costs.
Appellant's motion to vacate his default was properly denied because he failed to present areasonable excuse for his failure to appear for the fact-finding and dispositional hearings and ameritorious defense to the petition to terminate his parental rights (Matter of Robert B. v Tina Q., 40AD3d 473 [2007]). The proffered excuse was that he had also missed a prior appearance onMay 2, 2006, at which the July 11 date was set, and neither his attorney nor the court notifiedhim of the adjourned date. His reason for failing to attend the May 2 court date, of which heconcededly had notice—lack of funds for travel from Brooklyn to the Bronx—isunsubstantiated and thus insufficient as a reasonable excuse for vacating a default (Matter of Cornelius G., 2 AD3d283 [2003], lv dismissed 2 NY3d 759 [2004]). Even if lack of funds had been thetrue reason for his failure to appear on May 2, 2006, he provided no reason why he did not adviseeither his lawyer, [*2]the court or the petitioning agency of hisinability to attend (see Matter of DamianRichard A., 49 AD3d 458 [2008]). Appellant's additional contentions that his attorneylost contact with him following the May 2 court date and thus was unable to notify him of theJuly 11 adjournment date, that he was homeless as of May 2006, and that because he hadreceived a slip from the court notifying him of an appearance date in the related neglectproceeding scheduled for July 27, 2006, he assumed that the next court date for the terminationproceeding would be that date as well, are equally unpersuasive.
Assuming appellant had offered a reasonable excuse for his failure to attend the July 11,2006 proceedings, he nonetheless failed to make the requisite showing that he possessed ameritorious defense to warrant vacatur of his default. His affidavit in support of vacatur insteadcontains generalized and conclusory statements to the effect that he has "never abandoned [his]children," that he has been "trying to do what was asked of" him by petitioner "from the time[his] children were placed" in the agency's care, that he has "attended therapy [and] parentingskills" classes, and that he has "visited [his] children whenever possible," even though theagency's "caseworkers made it clear to [him] that they did not want [him] to attend visits at theagency . . . treat[ing him] with contempt whenever [he] saw them." These bareallegations, devoid of any detail or substantiation, are insufficient to establish a meritoriousdefense to the allegation of abandonment (see Matter of Violet Crystal F., 270 AD2d 163[2000]; see generally Peacock v Kalikow, 239 AD2d 188, 190 [1997]). In contrast, theevidence adduced at the fact-finding hearing demonstrated that appellant's three contacts with thechildren within the six-month period preceding the filing of the petition were insubstantial andsupported a finding of abandonment under Social Services Law § 384-b (4) (b); (5) (a)(Matter of Candice K., 245 AD2d 821, 822 [1997]).
We have considered appellant's remaining contentions and find them unavailing.Concur—Lippman, P.J., Gonzalez, Sweeny, Catterson and DeGrasse, JJ.