Service Upon Opposing Party of Objections to Support Magistrate’s Order Is a Condition Precedent to Consideration of the Objections and Appellate Review

Failure to properly serve opposing party with objections to Support Magistrate’s order precludes a consideration of the merits of the objections and appellate review:

Family Court Act § 439 provides, in pertinent part, that “[a] party filing objections shall serve a copy of such objections upon the opposing party,” and that “[p]roof of service upon the opposing party shall be filed with the court at the time of filing of objections and any rebuttal.” Here, given the mother’s evidence that she did not live at the address to which the father had mailed the objections, coupled with the father’s conceded failure to mail the objections to the correct address, and where “no rebuttal to the objections had been filed by the mother” … ,”the father failed to fulfill a condition precedent to filing timely written objections to the Support Magistrate’s order and, thus, failed to exhaust the Family Court procedure for review of [his] objections” … . Consequently, “the Family Court lacked jurisdiction to consider the merits of the objections, and the father waived his right to appellate review” … . Matter of Hamilton v Hamilton, 2013 NY Slip Op 08246, 2nd Dept 12-11-13