Clark v Clark
2012 NY Slip Op 08934 [101 AD3d 1662]
December 21, 2012
Appellate Division, Fourth Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, February 6, 2013


Yvonne Clark, Respondent, v Gregory Clark, Respondent. Lisa M. Fahey, Esq., Attorney for the Children, Appellant.

[*1] Lisa M. Fahey, Attorney for the Children, East Syracuse, appellant pro se.

Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Onondaga County (Kevin G. Young, J.), entered May 14, 2010. The judgment, inter alia, granted custody of the parties' children to defendant.

It is hereby ordered that the judgment so appealed from is unanimously affirmed without costs.

Memorandum: The Attorney for the Children (AFC) appeals from a judgment that, inter alia, granted custody of the three children to defendant. We conclude that Supreme Court, having properly considered the various factors involved in determining the best interests of the children (see generally Eschbach v Eschbach, 56 NY2d 167, 171-174 [1982]; Fox v Fox, 177 AD2d 209, 210 [1992]), properly granted custody to defendant. We note that the children's preferences "are not determinative" (Matter of VanDusen v Riggs, 77 AD3d 1355, 1356 [2010]). Here, the court's findings were based on its assessment of the credibility of the witnesses, and we accord great deference to the court's determination (see Matter of McLeod v McLeod, 59 AD3d 1011, 1011 [2009]). Present—Scudder, P.J., Centra, Valentino, Whalen and Martoche, JJ.