Power of court The court has power over the property of an infant and is authorized and empowered to appoint a guardian of the person or ... · as in force on May 31, 2026
§ 1701. Power of court
The court has power over the property of an infant and is authorized and empowered to appoint a guardian of the person or of the property or of both of an infant whether or not the parent or parents of the infant or child are living. Where the guardianship and custody of a child have been committed to an authorized agency pursuant to section six hundred thirty-one of the family court act, or section three hundred eighty-three-c, section three hundred eighty-four or section three hundred eighty-four-b of the social services law, or where both parents of the child whose consent to the adoption of the child would have been required pursuant to section one hundred eleven-a of the domestic relations law are dead, the court may appoint a permanent guardian of a child if the court finds that such appointment is in the best interests of the child.
The Surrogate’s Court may control an infant’s property and appoint a guardian of the infant’s person, property, or both, whether or not a parent is living. It may appoint a permanent guardian in the child’s best interests when guardianship and custody were committed to an authorized agency under the named statutes, or when both parents whose adoption consent would have been required are dead. ★
Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.
This provision appears in Volume 1 — The Surrogate's Court in Plain English; Volume 2 — The Surrogate's Court Procedure Act; Volume 5 — Your Career: Surrogate's Court in Plain English.