Matter of Pettiford v. Clarke

Appeal from an order of the Family Court, Westchester County (David Klein, J.), dated November 3, 2014. The order, without a hearing, dismissed the father’s petition to modify a prior order of custody and visitation so as to award him physical custody of the subject child, on the ground that the child’s best interests could not be determined without the child’s participation in the proceeding.

Ordered that the order is reversed, on the law and the facts, without costs or disbursements, the petition is reinstated, and the matter is remitted to the Family Court, Westchester County, for a hearing…