Source: http://ny.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.20130131_0000307.NY.htm/qx
Timestamp: 2020-07-03 11:30:27
Document Index: 686972039

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1012', '§ 1012', '§ 1046', '§ 1046', '§ 1046', '§ 1012', '§ 1046']

FindACase™ | In Re Jeffrey M.
IN RE JEFFREY M., A DEPENDENT CHILD UNDER EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE, ETC., NEW YORK CITY ADMINISTRATION FOR CHILDREN'S SERVICES, PETITIONER-APPELLANT, AND NOEMI C., RESPONDENT-RESPONDENT.
Matter of Jeffrey M. (Noemi C.)
Gonzalez, P.J., Saxe, DeGrasse, Freedman, JJ.
Order, Family Court, Bronx County (Anne-Marie Jolly, J.), entered on or about March 31, 2011, which dismissed the neglect petition against respondent mother, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
Insofar as relevant, Family Court Act § 1012(f) provides as follows: " Neglected child' means a child less than eighteen years of age . . . whose physical, mental or emotional condition has been impaired or is in imminent danger of becoming impaired as a result of the failure of his parent or other person legally responsible for his care to exercise a minimum degree of care . . . in providing the child with proper supervision or guardianship . . . or by misusing a drug or drugs" (§ 1012[f][i][B]). Family Court Act § 1046 provides, in relevant part, that "[i]n any hearing under this article . . . proof that a person repeatedly misuses a drug or drugs or alcoholic beverages, to the extent that it has or would ordinarily have the effect of producing in the user thereof a substantial state of stupor, unconsciousness, intoxication, hallucination, disorientation or incompetence, or a substantial impairment of judgment, or a substantial manifestation of irrationality, shall be prima facie evidence that a child of or who is the legal responsibility of such person is a neglected child except that such drug or alcoholic beverage misuse shall not be prima facie evidence of neglect when such person is voluntarily and regularly participating in a recognized rehabilitative program" (§ 1046[a][iii]). In a fact-finding hearing, any determination that a child is abused or neglected must be based on a preponderance of the evidence (Family Ct Act § 1046[b][i]). We conclude that the petition was properly dismissed because the caseworker's testimony and the medical record in evidence were insufficient to support, by a preponderance of the evidence, a determination that respondent neglected the subject child. Although respondent's living conditions were unsuitable, the record presents no basis for a conclusion that Jeffrey's "physical, mental or emotional condition has been impaired or is in imminent danger of becoming impaired" as a result of his occasional exposure to the environment in which his mother lived (see Family Ct Act § 1012[f][i]). In this case, the child was thriving under the care of his aunt and grandmother. The record is similarly insufficient to establish a prima facie case of neglect under Family Court Act § 1046(a)(iii) because, as noted above, the caseworker's investigation disclosed that respondent neither used or was under the influence of drugs in Jeffrey's presence.
Moreover, there is no evidence of the frequency of respondent's drug use (see e.g. Matter of Anastasia G., 52 AD3d 830, 832 [2nd Dept 2008]).