## Facts

- Joanne Bennett gave birth to Gina Marie Bennett at age 15, unmarried, while living with her parents.
- Shortly after birth, the infant was placed with Marie Jeffreys, a nonrelative, after Bennett acquiesced under family pressure.
- Gina lived with Jeffreys from infancy through most of her childhood; the record disputed the extent of Bennett’s later contact.
- Family Court found no statutory surrender or abandonment and expressly found Bennett was not unfit.
- At the time of appellate review, Gina was about eight years old; Bennett was about 23, nearing college graduation, and had housing with her parents with space for the child.
- Jeffreys was separated from her husband, worked as a domestic, and had at times housed the child in a motel.

## Issues

1. Whether a fit parent who has not surrendered, abandoned, or persistently neglected a child may nevertheless be denied custody due to prolonged separation from the child.
2. What analytic sequence governs a custody dispute between a parent and a nonparent: parental right as a threshold, or an immediate best-interests inquiry.
3. Whether prolonged separation can constitute “extraordinary circumstances” sufficient to permit a best-interests determination favoring a nonparent.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals reversed the Appellate Division’s order awarding custody to the mother.
- The Court held that the State may not deprive a parent of custody absent surrender, abandonment, persistent neglect, unfitness, or other like extraordinary circumstances.
- The Court held that once extraordinary circumstances are shown, the custody disposition is governed by the child’s best interests.
- The Court concluded that prolonged separation of mother and child for most of the child’s life constituted extraordinary circumstances on this record.
- The Court remitted the matter to Family Court for a new hearing because neither lower court sufficiently examined the parties’ qualifications and backgrounds to determine the child’s best interests.

## Legal Principles

- A parent has a superior right to custody against a nonparent unless the nonparent proves surrender, abandonment, persistent neglect, unfitness, or other like extraordinary circumstances.
- Courts apply a two-step framework in parent–nonparent custody disputes: (1) determine whether extraordinary circumstances exist; (2) if so, decide custody based on the child’s best interests.
- “Extraordinary circumstances” may include a prolonged separation between parent and child for most of the child’s life, even without a finding of abandonment or unfitness.
- When best interests are reached, the court must develop a complete record regarding each proposed custodian’s background, stability, and the child’s emotional and psychological needs.

## Conclusion

The court held that a fit parent’s custody claim cannot be displaced by a nonparent without a threshold showing of extraordinary circumstances, but that prolonged separation can satisfy that threshold and require a full best-interests hearing on an adequate evidentiary record.


Matter of Bennett v. Jeffreys, 40 N.Y.2d 543 (N.Y. 1976)