Opinion
December 14, 1995
Appeal from the Family Court, Bronx County (Marjory Fields, J.).
A preponderance of the credible evidence established that respondents abused their three-month old daughter Beverly which resulted in her death (Family Ct Act § 1046 [a] [ii]; see, Matter of Philip M., 82 N.Y.2d 238, 243-244). There was proof that she sustained four rib fractures and a possible forearm fracture that had healed without having received medical attention. The uncontroverted medical testimony revealed that the immediate cause of the infant's death was aspiration of vomit into her lungs which caused asphyxiation. The court properly credited petitioner's two medical experts who found that all of the above injuries were the result of child abuse, and not of a Cesarean birth, a fall off a bed, or from a two year old sister pulling on her arm, as explained by respondents. The court's rejection of the medical examiner's conclusions that the cause of death was natural and that the child had not been abused, was proper in view of the overwhelming evidence of injuries that were of a nature that would ordinarily not occur but for the acts or omissions of respondents (Family Ct Act § 1046 [a] [ii]).
The derivative finding was also proper as there is no need to find physical injuries with respect to siblings of an abused child (Family Ct Act § 1046 [a] [i]; see, Matter of Vincent M., 193 A.D.2d 398, 404).
We have considered respondents' remaining contentions and find them to be without merit. The goal for all the children should continue to be to place them in respondents' custody.
Concur — Murphy, P.J., Rosenberger, Wallach, Asch and Tom, JJ.