Opinion
2003-07144.
Decided February 9, 2004.
In a child custody proceeding pursuant to Family Court Act article 6, the mother appeals, as limited by her brief, from so much of an order of the Family Court, Suffolk County (Lynaugh, J.), entered August 11, 2003, as awarded custody of the parties' children to the father.
Sari M. Friedman, P.C., Garden City, N.Y., for appellant.
McGuire Condon, P.C., Huntington, N.Y. (Karen D. McGuire of counsel), for respondent.
Before: NANCY E. SMITH, J.P., GLORIA GOLDSTEIN, HOWARD MILLER and SANDRA L. TOWNES, JJ.
DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the order is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs.
The Family Court was not divested of jurisdiction over the custody matter by the subsequent commencement of a matrimonial action in the Supreme Court during the pendency of the Family Court proceeding ( see Family Ct Act § 651[b]; Matter of Lacarrubba v. Lacarrubba, 198 A.D.2d 354; Matter of Rubenstein v. Yosef, 198 A.D.2d 359; Matter of James P.W. v. Eileen M.W., 136 A.D.2d 549). In addition, the mother waived her personal jurisdiction objection by actively participating in the custody hearing ( see Matter of Brozzo v. Brozzo, 192 A.D.2d 878).
Further, the Family Court's determination to award custody to the father was supported by a sound and substantial basis in the record. A reading of the court's decision reveals that it carefully considered numerous factors commonly recited as being of significance in determining what is in the children's best interests, including parental guidance, abduction, or defiance of legal process, the ability of each parent to provide for the children's emotional and intellectual development, the financial status and ability of each parent to provide for the children, and the overall relative fitness of the parents ( see Eschbach v. Eschbach, 56 N.Y.2d 167; Matter of Garvin v. Garvin, 176 A.D.2d 318) . According more weight to the father's testimony than to the mother's, a credibility determination with which we see no basis on this record to interfere ( see Ferraro v. Ferraro, 257 A.D.2d 596), the Family Court concluded that the mother's animosity toward the father and her attempts to exclude him from his children's lives were harmful to the children and rendered her the less fit parent ( see Miller-Presutti v. Presutti, 257 A.D.2d 562; Matter of Rebecca B., 204 A.D.2d 57). Exercising our independent review, we find that the Family Court's determination is supported by a sound and substantial basis in the record.
Finally, the Family Court providently exercised its discretion in denying the mother's request for forensic evaluations ( see Kaplansky v. Kaplansky, 212 A.D.2d 667). Under the circumstances of this case, it is unnecessary to remit the matter to the Family Court for the appointment of a law guardian ( see Engeldrum v. Engeldrum, 306 A.D.2d 242; Matter of Farnham v. Farnham, 252 A.D.2d 675),
SMITH, J.P., GOLDSTEIN, H. MILLER and TOWNES, JJ., concur.