ADJOURNMENT IN CONTEMPLATION OF DISMISSAL WHICH HAS RESULTED IN DISMISSAL IS NOT APPEALABLE (SECOND DEPT).
The Second Department determined no appeal lies from an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal (ACD) which has resulted in dismissal:
“It is a fundamental principle of our jurisprudence that the power of a court to declare the law only arises out of, and is limited to, determining the rights of persons which are actually controverted in a particular case pending before the tribunal. This principle, which forbids courts to pass on academic, hypothetical, moot, or otherwise abstract questions, is founded both in constitutional separation-of-powers doctrine, and in methodological strictures which inhere in the decisional process of a common-law judiciary” … .
Thus, an appeal is academic “unless an adjudication of the merits will result in immediate and practical consequences to the parties” … .
The application of these principles to the facts of this case establish that the appeal is academic. In the order appealed from, the Family Court adjourned the proceedings in contemplation of dismissal until July 18, 2017. Where a proceeding is adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, and the proceeding is not restored to the calendar and no applications by the petitioner or the child's attorney or motions by the court to restore the proceeding to the calendar are pending, “the petition is, at the expiration of the adjournment period, deemed to have been dismissed by the court in furtherance of justice” (Family Ct Act 1039[f]). Thus, the petition has been dismissed, by operation of law and in the furtherance of justice… . Given that the appellants have received the exact relief they seek, any determination we might make in this matter would have no direct effect on the rights of the parties before us … . Matter of Priciliyana C. (Jacklyn L.), 2018 NY Slip Op 05927, Second Dept 8-29-18
APPEALS (ADJOURNMENT IN CONTEMPLATION OF DISMISSAL WHICH HAS RESULTED IN DISMISSAL IS NOT APPEALABLE (SECOND DEPT))/CRIMINAL LAW (APPEALS, ADJOURNMENT IN CONTEMPLATION OF DISMISSAL WHICH HAS RESULTED IN DISMISSAL IS NOT APPEALABLE (SECOND DEPT))/FAMILY LAW (APPEALS, ADJOURNMENT IN CONTEMPLATION OF DISMISSAL WHICH HAS RESULTED IN DISMISSAL IS NOT APPEALABLE (SECOND DEPT))/ADJOURNMENT IN CONTEMPLATION OF DISMISSAL (ACD, ADJOURNMENT IN CONTEMPLATION OF DISMISSAL WHICH HAS RESULTED IN DISMISSAL IS NOT APPEALABLE (SECOND DEPT))