Yitzchak Twersky v. Renee Twersky

Appeal by the non-custodial mother of two minor children from an order of the Family Court, Rockland County (Weiner, J.), dated November 29, 1983, which, inter alia, restricts her visitation rights to supervised visitation. para. Order modified, on the law and the facts, by deleting the provision therein which modified the October 22, 1982 order of visitation and said order of visitation is reinstated in its entirety. As so modified, order affirmed, with costs to the appellant. para. Both parties alleged violations of the October 22, 1982 visitation order which permitted unsupervised visitation with the mother. After a fact-finding hearing, the Family Court found neither party had breached the order and dismissed both parties petitions. However, the court also made a finding that unsupervised visitation caused the children emotional harm. The court noted that visits which had been supervised by the Volunteer Counseling Services of Rockland County, which had been arranged by the father, were in the childrens best interests and should continue. Modifying its prior order, sua sponte, the court directed that all visitation, including telephone communications, shall be supervised by the childrens therapist, Dr. Burton August. The order limited supervised visits to one a month. para. The mother appeals. She claims, inter alia, that the record does not support the need for supervised visitation and urges this court to reinstate unsupervised visitation. The children are being raised by the father in the strict Orthodox Jewish tradition. The mother does not share this life-style but has agreed to use her best efforts to insure that the childrens religious practices are followed. The father argues that the mothers conduct has caused the children emotional harm and that supervision minimizes the conflicts they experience. para. Visitation is a joint right of the non-custodial parent and the child (Weiss v Weiss, 52 N.Y.2d 170, 175). The best interests of the child lie in his being nurtured and guided by both natural parents (Daghir v Daghir, 82 A.D.2d 191, 193, affd 56 N.Y.2d 938). In order for the non-custodial parent to develop a meaningful, nurturing relationship with her child, visitation must be frequent and regular (Daghir v Daghir, supra, p 193; Weiss v Weiss, supra, p 175). Absent extraordinary circumstances, where visitation [103 A.D.2d 775 Page 776]