“Like Humpty Dumpty, a family, once broken by divorce, cannot be put back together in precisely the same way.” Thus, Judge Vito J. Titone, writing for a unanimous Court of Appeals in Tropea v. Tropea, 87 NY2d 727 (1996), captured the essence of the dilemma that has confronted court after court when a divorced custodial parent seeks to relocate with a child to better their lives in accordance with that parent’s vision. Nearly two decades later, there are still no easy solutions and relocation remains an issue to be decided on a case-by-case basis as recent opinions illustrate. This review begins the search for a pattern providing precedential guidance for resolving this complex and vexing issue, and leads to this question: Has the unspoken question of gender bias, perhaps a lack of economic equality, at last made it to the forefront of relocation determinations in the First Department?
Relocation to Mississippi
In Matter of Kevin McK. v. Elizabeth A.E., 111 AD3d 124, 125 (First Dept. 2013), Justice David B. Saxe of the Appellate Division, First Department, opened the decision with remarks about grappling with relocation issues—and in this case, the economic frustrations of residing in New York City, writing, “We are once again confronted with the problem of balancing a child’s need for the ongoing presence of both parents in his daily life, with the custodial parent’s proven inability to support herself and the child beyond the subsistence level here in New York.” Id. at 126.
