IN RE: Robert DOAR (2025)

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, New York.

IN RE: Robert DOAR, etc., Petitioner, for the Appointment of a Guardian for C.B, an incapacitated person, Dalton Battin, Nonparty-Appellant, v. Gregory K. Pryor, Nonparty-Respondent.

4716

Decided: September 23, 2025

Moulton, J.P., Mendez, O'Neill Levy, Michael, Chan, JJ.

Dalton Battin, New Rochelle, for appellant, pro se. Smith Buss & Jacobs LLP, New York (Jacqueline Aiello of counsel), for respondent.

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Ta–Tanisha James, J.), entered October 9, 2024, which, insofar appealed from, denied appellant's request for attorneys’ fees and costs, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Supreme Court providently exercised its discretion by declining to award counsel fees and costs to appellant, as respondent did not engage in “frivolous conduct” within the meaning of 22 NYCRR 130–1.1(a). The record does not establish that respondent advanced a position that was “completely without merit in law” or undertaken for the purposes of delay, harassment, or malicious injury, nor does it establish that respondent asserted material factual statements that were false (id. at 130–1.1[c]; see Matter of Kover, 134 A.D.3d 64, 74, 19 N.Y.S.3d 228 [1st Dept. 2015]).

In view of the foregoing, we need not consider appellant's remaining arguments.

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