| Matter of Hermanowski v Hermanowski |
| 2008 NY Slip Op 09995 [57 AD3d 777] |
| December 16, 2008 |
| Appellate Division, Second Department |
| In the Matter of Slawomir Hermanowski, Respondent, v ShariHermanowski, Appellant. |
—[*1] Sari M. Friedman, P.C., Garden City, N.Y. (Christal S. Prinz of counsel), for respondent. Stephen R. Hellman, Mastic, N.Y., attorney for the child.
In a visitation proceeding pursuant to Family Court Act article 6, the mother appeals, as limited byher brief, from stated portions of an order of the Family Court, Suffolk County (Boggio, R.), datedJanuary 15, 2008, which, after a hearing, inter alia, granted the father's petition to modify the parties'judgment of divorce to award him four consecutive weeks of summer visitation with the parties' childand visitation during alternate school recesses, and to permit him to travel with the parties' child outsideof the United States.
Ordered that the order is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs.
In a stipulation of settlement which was incorporated but not merged into the parties' judgment ofdivorce entered June 7, 2000 the parties agreed that the mother would be awarded custody of theparties' then three-year-old daughter, with a visitation schedule for the father. The instant proceedingwas commenced on or about July 25, 2007 when the father sought to modify the parties' judgment ofdivorce to award him increased visitation with their daughter.
One who seeks to modify an existing order of visitation is not automatically entitled to a hearing,but must make a showing that there has been a subsequent change of circumstances and thatmodification is in the subject child's best interest (see Family Ct Act § 467 [b]; §652 [b]; Matter of Wilson v McGlinchey, 2 NY3d 375, 380-382 [2004]; Matter of Shockome v Shockome, 53AD3d 618, 619 [2008]). Here, the father met that burden. The father moved from the state ofNew York to the state of Ohio [*2]for employment and was thusunable to take full advantage of the existing visitation schedule. Furthermore, the parties' daughter was 3years old when the parties agreed to the stipulation of settlement and she was 11 years old at the timeof the father's petition, and she was in favor of increased visitation with him.
Based upon the evidence adduced at the hearing, the Family Court's determination that the fathershould be awarded four consecutive weeks of summer visitation with the subject child, and that theparties should alternate visitation during the winter and spring school recesses, was in the child's bestinterest. We discern no basis in the record to disturb the Family Court's determination that the fathershould be permitted to travel with the child outside of the United States (see Matter of Puran v Murray, 37 AD3d472 [2007]).
The mother's remaining contention is without merit. Rivera, J.P., Dillon, Covello and McCarthy,JJ., concur.