PETITIONER DID NOT DEMONSTRATE THE NEGLECT PETITION WAS PROPERLY MAILED TO MOTHER AND MOTHER PRESENTED EVIDENCE REBUTTING THE PROCESS SERVER’S AFFIDAVIT; A HEARING ON WHETHER MOTHER WAS PROPERLY SERVED IS REQUIRED (FOURTH DEPT).

The Fourth Department, reversing Family Court, determined a hearing on whether mother was properly served with the neglect petition was necessary:

… [P]etitioner failed in the first instance to establish that the documents were mailed to the mother’s ” ‘last known address’ ” inasmuch as “[t]he affidavit of service says that the [papers] were mailed [by prepaid, first class mail] . . . , without identifying th[e] address” to which they were mailed … . In any event, even assuming, arguendo, that the process server’s affidavit was sufficient to create the presumption of valid service, we conclude that the mother’s submissions were sufficient to rebut that presumption.

The mother’s attorney submitted an affidavit from his legal assistant establishing that the person who accepted service mistakenly thought the papers were for his daughter, who shared the same first name as the mother. That person also informed the legal assistant that the mother had never resided at that address and that the mother’s father, with whom petitioner believed the mother was residing, “had moved out of the home months earlier.” We thus conclude that the mother rebutted any presumption that she was properly served at her “actual place of business, dwelling place or usual place of abode so as to satisfy the requirements of CPLR 308 (2) [or (4)]” … . Additionally, we note that petitioner’s own submissions in the application for an order of substituted service raise a question whether the mother ever resided at the address listed in the affidavit of service inasmuch as that address was not among the numerous identified addresses for her. Matter of William A. (Jessica F.), 2021 NY Slip Op 01580, Fourth Dept 3-19-21