The Second Department, reversing Family Court, determined the evidence did not support finding mother abused her two-month old child. The child, who was removed from the scene by the grandmother before the acts of domestic violence took place:
“‘[A] finding of neglect is proper where a preponderance of the evidence establishes that the child’s physical, mental, or emotional condition was impaired or was in danger of becoming impaired by the parent’s commission of an act, or acts, of domestic violence in the child’s presence'” … . “However, ‘exposing a child to domestic violence is not presumptively neglectful,'” and “‘[n]ot every child exposed to domestic violence is at risk of impairment'” . “The Legislature’s requirement of actual or imminent danger of impairment prevents st… ate intrusion into private family life in the absence of ‘serious harm or potential harm to the child, not just . . . what might be deemed undesirable parental behavior'” … .
While testimony was elicited from the paternal grandmother that the subject child, then under two months old, was somewhere in an apartment with the mother and the father while they yelled at each other, the grandmother testified that she removed the child from that apartment prior to any acts of domestic violence. The evidence that the mother and the father engaged in a loud verbal argument in the presence of their infant child was insufficient to establish that the child’s physical, mental, or emotional condition was impaired or in imminent danger of becoming impaired … . Matter of Kingston T. (Diamond T.), 2022 NY Slip Op 05694, Second Dept 10-12-22
Practice Point: Mother’s two-month-old child may have heard loud arguing before grandmother removed the child from the scene. The evidence did not support a finding mother neglected the child by exposing the child to domestic violence.