IN RE: Jacqueline BONTZOLAKES (2018)

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

It is hereby ORDERED that the order so appealed from is unanimously modified on the law by striking from the second ordering paragraph the word “other,” and as modified the order is affirmed without costs.

Memorandum:  Petitioner mother appeals from an order that denied her petition seeking to modify a prior visitation order.  We conclude that Family Court properly denied the petition because the mother failed to establish “a change in circumstances which reflect[ed] a real need for change to ensure the best interest[s] of the child” (Matter of Vasquez v. Barfield, 81 A.D.3d 1398, 1399, 917 N.Y.S.2d 468 [4th Dept. 2011] [internal quotation marks omitted];  see Matter of Miller v. Pederson, 121 A.D.3d 1598, 1599, 993 N.Y.S.2d 860 [4th Dept. 2014]; Matter of Harder v. Phetteplace, 93 A.D.3d 1199, 1200, 940 N.Y.S.2d 414 [4th Dept. 2012], lv denied 19 N.Y.3d 808, 2012 WL 2428565 [2012] ).

In its order denying mother's petition, however, the court erred in also ordering that mother's visitation would occur “every other week,” which was a modification of the prior visitation order's provision granting the mother weekly visitation.  The issue of decreasing the mother's visitation was not before the court in the mother's petition, respondent father did not petition to reduce the mother's visitation time, and that issue was not the subject of the hearing.  Although the mother had informally agreed with the visitation supervisor to have visits every other week with the apparent intent that it would improve her relationship with the child and, over time, result in additional visitation, the mother did not consent to an order reducing her visitation.  We therefore modify the order accordingly.