Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2009

Bullinger v. Costa

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York · Decided June 2, 2009

63 A.D.3d 735; 880 N.Y.S.2d 336

Cases that cite this one

21 later published cases cite this decision.

Matter of Fernandez (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2021)
Matter of Tecza v. Alija (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2016)
Matter of Blazek v. Zavelo (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2015)
Colter v. Baker (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2013)
Colter v. Baker (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2013)
Liverance v. Liverance (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2017)
Matter of Watson v. Maragh (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2017)
Matter of Kraft v. Orsini (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2016)
Matter of Dolan v. Masterton (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2014)
Matter of Costigan v. Renner (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2014)
Irizarry v. Irizarry (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2014)
Irizarry v. Irizarry (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2014)
Grant v. Terry (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2013)
Grant v. Terry (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2013)
Gooler v. Gooler (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2013)
Gooler v. Gooler (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2013)
Binong Xu v. Sullivan (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2012)
In re Ciara B. (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2012)
In re Ciara B. (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2012)
James v. Jeffries (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2011)
Jave v. Danial (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2010)

This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.

Opinion of the Court

In related child custody and visitation proceedings pursuant to Family Court Act article 6, the mother appeals, as limited by her brief, from so much of an order of the Family Court, Suffolk County (Lynaugh, J.), dated November 17, 2008, as, after a hearing, granted that branch of the father’s petition which was for unsupervised visitation with the child.

Ordered that the order is reversed insofar as appealed from, on the facts and in the exercise of discretion, without costs or disbursements, that branch of the father’s petition which was for unsupervised visitation is denied, and the matter is remitted to the Family Court, Suffolk County, to determine who shall supervise visitation and to set a visitation schedule, and for the entry of an amended order thereafter.

In these related child custody and visitation proceedings, the Family Court awarded the mother, who was never married to the father, custody of the subject child. The court also awarded the father regular, unsupervised visitation. The Family Court improvidently exercised its discretion in awarding the father unsupervised visitation with the subject child.

Supervised visitation is appropriately required only where it is established that unsupervised visitation would be detrimental *736to the child (see Cervera v Bressler, 50 AD3d 837, 839 [2008]; Rosenberg v Rosenberg, 44 AD3d 1022, 1024 [2007]; Matter of Powell v Blumenthal, 35 AD3d 615, 616 [2006]). Given the totality of the circumstances (see Eschbach v Eschbach, 56 NY2d 167, 172 [1982]), including the young age of the child, the father’s demonstrated inability to control his anger in the child’s presence, his general disregard for the safety of others—including the child—during his violent fits of rage, and the evidence of his abuse of alcohol and possibly other substances, unsupervised visitation is not in the best interests of the child (see Matter of Powell v Blumenthal, 35 AD3d at 616-617; Matter of Elnatanova v Administration for Children’s Servs., 34 AD3d 802, 803 [2006]; Matter of Anaya v Hundley, 12 AD3d 594, 595 [2004]; Matter of Simpson v Simrell, 296 AD2d 621, 621-622 [2002]; Matter of Morgan v Sheevers, 259 AD2d 619, 620 [1999]). Fisher, J.P., Covello, Angiolillo and Leventhal, JJ., concur.

Case-law data current through September 30, 2026. Source: CourtListener bulk data.