In re Jaiden T.G.
Versions:89 A.D.3d 1021934 N.Y.S.2d 420934 N.Y.2d 420
Wildely
In the Matter of JAIDEN T.G., an Infant. ADMINISTRATION FOR CHILDREN‘S SERVICES, Appellant. SHAVONNA D.-F. et al., Respondents. [934 NYS2d 420]
A petition was filed against the mother and the mother‘s paramour, Joseph T., alleging, inter alia, that the subject child was an abused child in that he had been admitted to the hospital
The statute permits a finding of abuse based upon evidence of an injury to a child which would ordinarily not occur absent acts or omissions of the responsible caretaker, and authorizes a method of proof which is closely analogous to the negligence rule of res ipsa loquitur (see Matter of Philip M., 82 NY2d 238, 244 [1993]). “[O]nce a petitioner in a child abuse case has established a prima facie case, the burden of going forward shifts to respondents to rebut the evidence of parental culpability“; however, “the burden of proving child abuse always rests with petitioner” (id. at 244). Once a prima facie case is established, there is a rebuttable presumption of parental culpability, which the Family Court may or may not accept based upon all the evidence in the record (id. at 246). In response to a prima facie case, a respondent may rest, or may challenge the establishment of the prima facie case by presenting evidence, for example, that the child was not in the respondent‘s care at the time of the injury or that the injury could reasonably have occurred accidentally, or by countering evidence of the child‘s condition (id. at 245).
Here, the petitioner established a prima facie case of abuse by presenting evidence that the subject child, who was four months old at the time, suffered a greenstick fracture, that a child of that age and physical ability would not normally sustain such a fracture accidentally, and that the mother‘s explanation, that the child may have suffered the injury due to a fall from a bed days earlier, was inconsistent with the injury sustained. However, the mother rebutted the presumption of parental abuse with evidence, which was credited by the Family Court, that the child was solely in the care of her paramour at the time