Grant of Visitation to Mother of Deceased Father (Grandmother) Reversed​

In reversing Family Court’s grant of visitation to the children’s grandmother, the Second Department wrote:

A court determining a petition for grandparent visitation under Domestic Relations Law § 72(1), must undertake a two-part inquiry. First, it must determine whether the grandparent has standing to petition for visitation rights based on the death of a parent or equitable circumstances …. If the court concludes that the grandparent has established the right to be heard, then it must determine if visitation is in the best interests of the child … . “[T]he courts should not lightly intrude on the family relationship against a fit parent’s wishes” … . “Indeed, it is strongly presumed that a fit parent’s decisions are in the child’s best interests” … .

In this case, the Family Court should have denied the grandmother’s petition for visitation. The death of the children’s father provided the grandmother with automatic standing to seek visitation (see Domestic Relations Law § 72[1]…). Nevertheless, the Family Court improvidently exercised its discretion in granting the petition. The evidence in the record … established that visitation was not in the best interests of the children at the time the Family Court granted the petition … . Moreover, we note that on this appeal, the attorney for the children supports the denial of visitation. Matter of Pinsky v Botnick, 2012 NY Slip Op 02402, 2012-03338 2012-07576, 2nd Dept, 4-10-13​