THE PETITION SEEKING TO TERMINATE FATHER’S PARENTAL RIGHTS, WITH THE GOAL OF FREEING THE CHILD FOR ADOPTION, AND THE CONCURRENT PERMANENCY PLAN TO RETURN THE CHILD TO THE CUSTODY OF MOTHER, HAD CONFLICTING END GOALS; THE PETITION TO TERMINATE FATHER’S PARENTAL RIGHTS SHOULD THEREFORE HAVE BEEN DIMSISSED (THIRD DEPT).
The Third Department, reversing Family Court, determined the end goals of two concurrent proceedings were contradictory and therefore the petition to terminate father’s parental rights should have been dismissed. The abandonment/termination of parental rights petition, which sought to free the child for adoption, was brought in the face of a permanency plan which sought to return the child to the custody of mother:
Respondent [father] contends that the abandonment proceeding, seeking to terminate his parental rights, was improperly brought against him as the permanency plan in place at the time of the hearing with respect to the mother was to return the child to the mother. We agree. … The statutory purpose of an abandonment proceeding is to free the child for adoption by terminating the parents’ rights to the child. Because this proceeding sought to terminate the rights of one parent in the face of an existent permanency plan that sought to reunite the child with the other parent, it did not serve that purpose. In circumstances such as this, dismissal of the petition is mandated … . Matter of Xavier XX. (Godfrey YY.), 2021 NY Slip Op 01295, Third Dept 3-4-21