Summary
affirming lower court's grant of summary judgment where plaintiff could not demonstrate that "the settlement entered into was improvident or that [plaintiff] would have been entitled to a more beneficial settlement, but for defendants' misconduct"
Summary of this case from Decker v. Nagel Rice LLCOpinion
July 26, 1990
Appeal from the Family Court, New York County (Bruce Kaplan, J.).
The Commissioner of Social Services charged that respondent smoked marihuana, left her grandchildren with their natural mother, a crack addict, and threatened her daughter with a meat cleaver while the children were present. Roberta Nelson, while working as a homemaker between the hours of 8:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M., testified at the fact-finding hearing that she witnessed the above events. The respondent did not appear at the hearing.
In view of the above facts the court did not err in finding that the respondent neglected her grandchildren. (Family Ct Act § 1012 [f] [i] [B].) Proof that a caretaker repeatedly misuses a drug is prima facie evidence of neglect. (Family Ct Act § 1046 [a] [iii]; see, Matter of Theresa J., 158 A.D.2d 364.) Here, the evidence of respondent's use of marihuana, leaving the children alone with their mother, a crack user, and chasing the mother with a meat cleaver, was sufficient to support a finding of neglect under the statute.
Concur — Murphy, P.J., Sullivan, Carro, Milonas and Rubin, JJ.