The New York State Court of Appeals has just handed down a decision in The Matter of Hausman 2009 NY Slip Op 08854 which has upheld an Appellate Division decision setting aside a deed executed by the decedent in favor of an LLC formed by two of her children two weeks  before they actually filed the articles of organization with the secretary of state. The court ruled that because the  filing had not been made before the deed was executed, the corporation lacked the legal ability to take title to the property . The problem here that although the deed might have been ruled valid under the de facto corporations rule (which is what the Surrogate’s Court did initially), there needed to have been some colorable attempt to comply with the statutes governing the organization of corporations before the deed was executed. Because the children of the decedent failed to submit any proof that they had at least tried to file the articles of organization before the execution of the deed, it was determined that the conveyance had failed and the deed was set aside with the property ending up in the residuary of the estate. Since the residuary was to be shared equally between her children , per stirpes, the property was shared with the minor grandchildren of the decedent who had survived two predeceased sons.