Fields v Fields

2011 NY Slip Op 01930 [82 AD3d 542]

March 17, 2011

Appellate Division, First Department

As corrected through Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Ronald Fields, Appellant, v Lucille Fields,Respondent.

—[*1]Arnold Davis, New York, for appellant. Hoffman, Polland & Furman, PLLC, New York(Elliot R. Polland of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Matthew F. Cooper, J.), entered January 14,2010, awarding defendant the principal amount of $20,000 plus interest and fees, pursuant to anorder, same court and Justice, entered on or about December 9, 2009, and order, same court(Deborah A. Kaplan, J.), entered September 9, 2009, which granted defendant's application forappellate counsel fees, unanimously affirmed, without costs. Appeals from aforesaid ordersunanimously dismissed, without costs, as subsumed in the appeal from the judgment.

When plaintiff appealed the judgment of divorce and a subsequent judgment to this Court(see 65 AD3d 297 [2009], affd 15 NY3d 158 [2010]), he had not yet paiddefendant the distributive award and therefore still controlled the majority of the marital estate.Accordingly, since plaintiff's respective financial position gave him a distinct advantage overdefendant, the court providently exercised its discretion in directing him to pay her appellatecounsel fees (see Silverman v Silverman, 304 AD2d 41, 48-49 [2003]).

We have considered plaintiff's remaining contentions and find them unavailing.Concur—Gonzalez, P.J., Tom, Acosta, Richter and RomÁn, JJ.