Out of State Visitation for All School Breaks and Three-Day Weekends (In Addition To Summers) Should Not Have Been Granted

The Second Department determined Family Court correctly awarded visitation with the father in Kentucky for the entire summer, but should not have awarded visitation with the father in Kentucky for school breaks and three-day weekends throughout the year:  In remitting the matter for re-working the The visitation, the court wrote:

The provision of the visitation schedule which, in addition to the summer visitation, awards the father visits in Kentucky during school breaks for “every Thanksgiving, Christmas, winter, mid-winter, spring, and Easter,” effectively deprives the mother “of any significant quality time” with the children, and is therefore “excessive… . While that provision takes into account the children’s need to spend time with the father and his family, it does not take into account the importance of their relationship with the mother and her extended family, in that it deprives the children of contact “during times usually reserved for family gatherings and recreation” … . We note that the court-appointed forensic evaluator recommended that the parties share parenting time during major holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. There was no contrary evidence that awarding all parenting time during these holidays to the father furthers the children’s best interests. The opinions of experts “are entitled to some weight” …, and, under the circumstances presented here, the Family Court should have awarded equal parenting time to the parties for these school breaks. Accordingly, we remit the matter to the Family Court to set forth a new visitation schedule regarding “Thanksgiving, Christmas, winter, mid-winter, spring, and Easter” that apportions those school breaks equally between the parties.  Matter of Felty v Felty, 2013 NY Slip Op 05454, 2nd Dept 7-24-13