86 A.D.2d 594 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1982
In a matrimonial action in which the parties were divorced, the mother appeals, as limited by her brief, from stated portions of an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Zelman, J.), dated March 11, 1981, which, after a hearing, inter alia, modified the divorce decree by awarding custody of the child of the parties to the father. Order reversed insofar as appealed from, on the law, without costs or disbursements, and the appellant’s cross application to dismiss the father’s application is granted. The parties were married in Florida in 1971. They had a child, Neff, later that year. In 1974, the wife left home with the child and moved to Louisiana where she has remained since. In 1975 the father obtained a Florida judgment of divorce on the ground of abandonment upon his wife’s default. Due to his severe financial circumstances he did not seek custody of Neff at that time and the Florida court gave custody to the mother with liberal visitation rights to the father. In August, 1979 Neff went to visit his father who had relocated in New York a few years earlier. At the