Matter of Vanessa B. (Lebert Charles C.)

2010 NY Slip Op 06703 [76 AD3d 912]

September 28, 2010

Appellate Division, First Department

As corrected through Wednesday, October 27, 2010

In the Matter of Vanessa B., an Infant. Lebert Charles C.,Appellant; New York Foundling Hospital, Respondent.

—[*1]Neal D. Futerfas, White Plains, for appellant.

Law Office of Jeremiah Quinlan, Hawthorne (Daniel Gartenstein of counsel), forrespondent.

Order, Family Court, Bronx County (Gayle P. Roberts, J.), entered on or about July 8, 2009,which, after a fact-finding hearing, dismissed with prejudice respondent's paternity petition andfound him entitled to neither notice of nor consent to the subject child's adoption, unanimouslyaffirmed, without costs.

Respondent failed to meet any of the criteria that would entitle him to notice as a putativefather in any adoption proceeding pertaining to this child (see Domestic Relations Law§ 111-a; cf. Matter of NormanChristian K., 37 AD3d 288 [2007]; Matter of Robert Z., 199 AD2d 19 [1993]).Furthermore, he was not a person entitled to consent to the child's adoption (seeDomestic Relations Law § 111 [1] [d]). Respondent admitted that he failed to providefinancial support for the child, citing only modest gifts and clothing. The court credited thetestimony of petitioner's caseworker and rejected respondent's contradictory testimony, findingthat the latter visited the child only twice in 2005-2006, five times in 2007-2008 while the childwas under the care of petitioner, and thereafter inconsistently while she was in a foster home.

We have considered respondent's remaining arguments and find them unavailing.Concur—Gonzalez, P.J., Andrias, Acosta, Renwick and Abdus-Salaam, JJ.