Visitation Details Should Not Have Been Left to Supervising Agency

The Fourth Department determined Family Court erred by delegating its authority with respect to the visitation schedule and sibling visits to the agency supervising the mother’s visitation:

…[T]he court “erred in failing to set a supervised visitation schedule, implicitly leaving it to the supervisor to determine” … .  By ordering only that visitation “shall take place through the Catholic Charities Therapeutic Supervised Visitation program,” the court improperly delegated its authority to the supervising agency … .  We note in addition that the court erred in merely indicating that “access should include the child’s siblings, if that can be accommodated by the program.”  If the court determined that sibling visitation is indeed in the best interests of the child, the court should specify in its order that the agency or organization designated to supervise visitation must be able to accommodate sibling visits.  We therefore modify the order accordingly, and we remit the matter to Family Court to determine the access schedule and whether sibling visitation shall occur. Matter of Green v Bontzolakes, 1034, 4th Dept 11-8-13