Case Information

In the Matter of CHERIS N. LAWRENCE, Respondent, v STEPHEN C. LAWRENCE, Respondent. SUSAN B. MARRIS, ESQ., Attorney for the Child, Appellant.

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Fourth Department

June 30, 2017

151 A.D.3d 1879 | 54 N.Y.S.3d 358

Appeal from an order of the Family Court, Oswego County (Thomas Benedetto, Ref.), entered August 28, 2015 in a proceeding pursuant to Family Court Act article 6. The order dismissed the petition.

It is hereby ordered that said appeal is unanimously dismissed without costs.

Memorandum: In this proceeding pursuant to Family Court Act article 6, the Attorney for the Child representing the parties' oldest child appeals from an order dismissing the mother's petition seeking modification of a custody order. Inasmuch as "the mother has not taken an appeal from that order [, the] child[ ], while dissatisfied with the order, cannot force the mother to litigate a petition that she has since abandoned" (Matter of Kessler v Fancher, 112 AD3d 1323, 1324 [2013]). A child in a custody matter does not have "full-party status" (Matter of McDermott v Bale, 94 AD3d 1542, 1543 [2012]), and we decline to permit the child's desires "to chart the course of litigation" (Kessler, 112 AD3d at 1324). Present—Whalen, P.J., Peradotto, DeJoseph, Curran and Winslow, JJ.