The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Abdus-Salaam, overruling a 25-year-old precedent, determined a partner in an unmarried couple who has no biological or adoptive relationship with a child can be the child's parent entitled to custody or visitation:
These two cases call upon us to assess the continued vitality of the rule promulgated in Matter of Alison D. v Virginia M. (77 NY2d 651 [1991]) — namely that, in an unmarried couple, a partner without a biological or adoptive relation to a child is not that child's “parent” for purposes of standing to seek custody or visitation under Domestic Relations Law § 70 (a), notwithstanding their “established relationship with the child” (77 NY2d at 655). Petitioners in these cases, who similarly lack any biological or adoptive connection to the subject children, argue that they should have standing to seek custody and visitation pursuant to Domestic Relations Law § 70 (a). We agree that, in light of more recently delineated legal principles, the definition of “parent” established by this Court 25 years ago in Alison D. has become unworkable when applied to increasingly varied familial relationships. Accordingly, today, we overrule Alison D. and hold that where a partner shows by clear and convincing evidence that the parties agreed to conceive a child and to raise the child together, the non-biological, non-adoptive partner has standing to seek visitation and custody under Domestic Relations Law § 70. * * *
Petitioners in the two cases before us have alleged that the parties entered into a pre-conception agreement to conceive and raise a child as co-parents. We hold that these allegations, if proven by clear and convincing evidence, are sufficient to establish standing. Because we necessarily decide these cases based on the facts presented to us, it would be premature for us to consider adopting a test for situations in which a couple did not enter into a pre-conception agreement. Accordingly, we do not now decide whether, in a case where a biological or adoptive parent consented to the creation of a parent-like relationship between his or her partner and child after conception, the partner can establish standing to seek visitation and custody. Matter of Brooke S.B. v Elizabeth A.C.C., 2016 NY Slip Op 05903, CtApp 8-30-16
FAMILY LAW (PARTNER IN AN UNMARRIED COUPLE WITH NO BIOLOGICAL OR ADOPTIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH A CHILD HAS STANDING AS A PARENT TO SEEK CUSTODY/VISITATION)/CUSTODY (PARTNER IN AN UNMARRIED COUPLE WITH NO BIOLOGICAL OR ADOPTIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH A CHILD HAS STANDING AS A PARENT TO SEEK CUSTODY/VISITATION)/VISITATION (PARTNER IN AN UNMARRIED COUPLE WITH NO BIOLOGICAL OR ADOPTIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH A CHILD HAS STANDING AS A PARENT TO SEEK CUSTODY/VISITATION)/PARENT (PARTNER IN AN UNMARRIED COUPLE WITH NO BIOLOGICAL OR ADOPTIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH A CHILD HAS STANDING AS A PARENT TO SEEK CUSTODY/VISITATION)