Opinion
January 15, 1991
Appeal from the Family Court, New York County (Mary E. Bednar, F.C.J.).
The determination that the respondents neglected their children, and that the children's well-being was impaired or in imminent danger of being impaired by the unreasonable infliction of excessive corporal punishment, was supported by a preponderance of the evidence. The evidence adduced at the fact-finding hearing, including the testimony of Carmelita C., age 14, reveals that the corporal punishment inflicted by respondent Kenny C. upon his children, including punching them in the face and beating them across the back with a belt or extension cord, was beyond the bounds of reasonable physical punishment, disproportionate to the circumstances under which the punishment was administered, and therefore excessive, particularly where the evidence reveals that the beatings were frequent and severe in nature. (Matter of Maroney v Perales, 102 A.D.2d 487.)
Similarly, the record is replete with evidence that although respondent Ingrid C. was aware of the dangerous and excessive corporal punishment inflicted upon the children by her husband, and was, in fact, present during many of the beatings, she nevertheless took no steps to protect her children.
Finally, the respondents' appeal from the order of disposition placing their children with the Commissioner of Social Services for a 12-month period has been rendered moot as to all the children, except Rebecca C., who appropriately continues in placement at the Manhattan Child Psychiatric Center, since the children were discharged to respondent Ingrid C. under Child Welfare Administration supervision in September of 1989. (Matter of Robert B., 102 A.D.2d 868.)
We have considered the respondents' remaining contentions and find them to be without merit.
Concur — Sullivan, J.P., Milonas, Rosenberger, Wallach and Smith, JJ.