IN RE: Sarah R. GLIKSMAN (2025)

DECISION & ORDER

In a proceeding pursuant to Family Court Act article 8, the petitioner appeals from an order of the Family Court, Kings County (Robert A. Markoff, J.), dated May 3, 2024.  The order dismissed the petition for lack of standing.

ORDERED that the order is affirmed, without costs or disbursements.

The petitioner is the paternal grandmother of the subject child, who was born in 2017.  The petitioner filed this family offense petition on behalf of the child, seeking an order of protection against the respondent, the child's maternal uncle.  In an order dated May 3, 2024, the Family Court dismissed the petition for lack of standing.  The petitioner appeals.

A person under the age of 18 may only appear by one of the representatives enumerated in CPLR 1201.  “Unless the court appoints a guardian ad litem, an infant shall appear by the guardian of his [or her] property or, if there is no such guardian, by a parent having legal custody, or, if there is no such parent, by another person or agency having legal custody” (CPLR 1201;  see Matter of Cohen v. Escabar, 219 A.D.3d 726, 727, 195 N.Y.S.3d 91).  Here, since the petitioner did not have legal custody or legal guardianship of the child, the petitioner did not have standing to bring this proceeding on behalf of the child (see Diaz v. Montefiore Med. Ctr. Henry & Lucy Moses Div., 299 A.D.2d 254, 254–255, 750 N.Y.S.2d 283).

Accordingly, the Family Court properly dismissed the petition.

DILLON, J.P., MILLER, WAN and HOM, JJ., concur.