| Matter of Dorf v Alvalle |
| 2010 NY Slip Op 06418 [76 AD3d 629] |
| August 17, 2010 |
| Appellate Division, Second Department |
| In the Matter of Richard B. Dorf, Petitioner, v Ruth E.Alvalle, Appellant. William J. Nash, Attorney for the Child, NonpartyRespondent. |
—[*1] Paraskevi Zarkadas, P.C., Centereach, N.Y., for petitioner.
In a proceeding pursuant to Family Court Act article 6, the mother appeals, as limited by herbrief, from so much of an order of the Family Court, Suffolk County (Tarantino, Jr., J.), datedNovember 10, 2009, as, after a hearing, in effect, granted that branch of the motion of theattorney for the child which was to hold her in contempt for violating a prior order dated May20, 2008, on the ground that she violated the terms and conditions thereof, and committed her tothe Suffolk County Jail for a term of 10 days. By decision and order on motion dated December4, 2009, enforcement of the order appealed from was stayed pending hearing and determinationof the appeal.
Ordered that the order dated November 10, 2009, is reversed insofar as appealed from, onthe law, with costs, and that branch of the motion of the attorney for the child which was to holdthe mother in contempt for violating the order dated May 20, 2008, is denied.
The evidence at the hearing did not establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the motherwillfully violated a prior order of the court by depriving the father of certain visitation time withthe parties' child (see Matter ofRubackin v Rubackin, 62 AD3d 11, 15 [2009]; Matter of Anonymous vAnonymous, 222 AD2d 501 [1995]). Accordingly, the Family Court erred in holding themother in contempt and directing that she be incarcerated. Skelos, J.P., Santucci, Dickerson andLeventhal, JJ., concur.