PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE

New York County Surrogate Kristen Booth Glenn has disqualified an attesting witness to a will from receiving a "beneficial disposition" under the will in the Matter of the Estate of Cynthia R. Wu 877N.Y.S.2d 886. In this matter, the executor had applied for an order directing the decedent’s brother — who was also the beneficiary of two life insurance policies– to pay his ratable share of the estate tax even though the will contained a clause specifically relieving him of any obligation to pay any estate taxes resulting from his receiving the proceeds of the policies. The matter was complicated by the fact that the brother – beneficiary was also one of the attesting witnesses to the will.Continue Reading Beneficial Disposition To Attesting Witness Held Void

Earlier today, New York’s  Appellate Division, Second Department published a decision In The Matter Of Astor denying Anthony D. Marshall a stay of discovery in the estate proceedings now underway in Surrogate’s Court. This is significant because Marshall, and his mother’s former attorney Francis   X Morrissey are  defendants in a criminal case where they are accused

New York  generally requires that litigants pay their own counsel fees unlike other states which subscribe to the "loser pays" policy. In keeping with this, the Appellate Division’s Third Department has upheld a ruling from the Warren County Surrogate in In Re Hyde 876 NYS2d196. This case involved a dispute between beneficiaries to a trust. A  judicial accounting had been rendered by the trustees with some beneficiaries approving it and others objecting. The trustees successfully defended their accounting and the beneficiaries who had not objected moved to have the legal expenses incurred in the trustees’ defense assessed against the shares of those beneficiaries who had unsuccessfully objected. The Surrogate denied the motion.Continue Reading Trust Beneficiares Held Not To Be Entitled To Order Directing Costs To Be Paid By Unsuccessful Objectants

The issue of undue influence was revisited recently by the Appellate Division in the Matter of Thaddeus Klingman 875 N.Y.S. 2d(A.D. 2 Dept 2009). Mr. Klingman learned the terrible news that he was suffering from terminal lung cancer and then proceeded to rescind a separation agreement, change the beneficiary of his life insurance and pension and execute a new will favoring his wife. His son’s objections to the will which were based upon  undue influence and fraud were dismissed upon motion prompting an appeal. The Appellate Division affirmed the Orange County Surrogate ‘s decision.Continue Reading Son’s Attempt To Establish Undue Influence Fails

The Second Department of New York’s Appellate Division has upheld a decision of Suffolk County Surrogate John M. Czygier in the Matter of Norma Anne Rizzi 875 N.Y.S.2d 254 which restates the right of the court to exercise its own discretion in permitting the filing of objections to probate after the time to do so

The time-honored principal of construing a will or trust as written and to determine the settlor’s intention from the unambiguous language of the instrument itself was ratified once more by the decision of the New York Appellate Division’s Second Department to partially affirm a decision written by Queens County Surrogate Robert Nahman in the Matter of Terranova 873 N.Y.S.2d 651(A.D. 2d Dept 2009). In this action, a trust beneficiary objected to a trust accounting on the grounds that the trustees had retained unproductive property and also that the trustees had purchased an insurance policy on the life of the beneficiary through a company which one of them had owned.The premiums were paid by making loans from the trust to the life insurance trust which owned the policies. Even though this certainly constituted self-dealing, the surrogate denied objectant’s motion for summary judgment on her objections.Continue Reading Self-Dealing By Fiduciary Trustees Permitted Where Allowed By Trust Instrument

Edward Rogowsky died in March 2001 after leaving the stock in his Brooklyn coop to his life partner of fifteen years, Peter McGarry. The decedent’s will also named McGarry as his executor and made the plaintiffs — his two sons– the alternate residuary beneficiaries of his will but left them nothing of value. One would think that after decedent’s sons had consented to the admission of the will to probate and defendant’s appointment as executor, they would not have sued the defendant for failing to honor an oral promise that they alleged he had made to honor a wish of the decedent to bequeath his interest in the apartment to his sons in exchange for their promise not to contest the will. It took them nearly six years to mount this challenge.Continue Reading Back Door Post Probate Will Challenge Fails On Motion

This evening your lawblogger attended a seminar in the courtroom at the Nassau County Surrogate’s Court. The speakers were the clerks of the Surrogate’s Courts in several Long Island counties as well as New York County. The program underscored the differences between procedure in different counties.Continue Reading Surrogate’s Court Procedure Differers In Different Counties

Surrogate Thomas E. Walsh II of Rockland County has denied a probate petition where the proponent was unable to establish due execution pursuant to the requirements of the Estates Powers and Trusts Law. It would seem improbable that a will witnessed by three experienced accountants (two of them CPAs) would not pass muster but that was the case in the matter of the Will of Christopher E. DiPasquale, 709/09, decided this past August 28th and reported at page 29 of the New York Law Journal on September 12, 2008.Continue Reading Failure To Show Due Execution Of Will Leads To Denial Of Admission To Probate

A  case just handed down from New York’s Appellate Division Third Department, Matter of Paigo, 2008 NY Slip Op 06250   involves an interesting and successful challenge to the presumption of due execution which arises when the witnesses to a will sign a self-executing (or "living" affidavit) where they attest that the testator signed the