The significance that family members may attach to relatively insignificant possessions can easily lead to huge disputes in the settling of an estate. An article by Margaret McCaffrey in the December 8th New York Times deals with this subject in humanistic rather than legalistic terms. Nevertheless, Ms McCaffrey’s suggestions on how to anticipate and defuse the conflicts that can arise when adult children battle over the same item of jewelry or furniture can have a positive effect not only on the way in which family members treat each other after losing a parent or grandparent but also can reduce the chances that arguments over possessions may lead to more serious and more expensive legal conflicts.

While the standard rule of thumb is that the use of a power of attorney by its holder to make gifts to him or herself is an improper abuse, New York’s Appellate Division’s recent decision in the Matter of George J. Ferrara , 802 N.Y.S. 2d 471 (A.D. 2 Dept 2005) has come to a different determination. Continue Reading Court Permits Self-Gifting Pursuant to Power of Attorney

My colleague in Florida, Juan Antunez (The Florida Probate Litigation Blog), has been reporting on a feud which has erupted following the death of Rosa Parks . Juan cites The Wall Street Journal story on November 16 which details a dispute between relatives of the civil rights pioneer and those who were handling her business affairs prior to her death.

The legal representatives named in her will have been sued by her nephew , William McCauley who has filed a petition to contest the will and to be named as his aunt’s legal representative . McCauley claims that Ms. Parks lacked the mental capacity to make a will and was subject to undue influence when it was executed.

New York City’s Civil Court is the busiest on the planet so it is easy to believe that some really weird things happen there. Legal -but logical- weirdness was the order of the day in Bianco v. Pierre 1450/00 (reported in the New York Law Journal on November 15,2005) which involved a garden-variety automobile accident case where a plaintiff passenger was seeking damages from the owner of the taxicab in which he had been injured when the accident occurred. Continue Reading Court Appoints Insurer’s Attorneys as Defendant’s Administrators

A religious dispute involving a battle for control of Brooklyn’s Satmar Chassidic Community failed to find a forum in the Kings County Supreme Court when a petition for the appointment of a guardian of the Grand Rabbi’s person and property was denied.The petition was brought by six of the Grand Rabbi’s eighty six grandchildren. Continue Reading Durable Power of Attorney Obviates Need for Guardianship

Not all of your assets will pass through your estate and be directed by the instructions you leave in your will.Assets which can be directed by your will are called testamentary assets while self-directed assets which are not directed by your will are called non-testamentary assets. This is really a very simple concept but it is important to understand it in order to properly plan your estate. Continue Reading Testamentary Assets and Self-Directed Assets

The Matter of the Estate of Ray F. Morningstar, N.Y.S. 2D 674(A.D. 4 Dept 2005) , a recently reported case , concerned a dispute between alleged nonmarital children of the decedent and the decedent’s marital children who were the estate’s administrators. In its decision denying the petition of the alleged nonmarital children for the removal of the marital children as administrators, New York’s Appellate Division speaks at length to the reasons when a fiduciary may be removed. Continue Reading Hostility, in and of Itself Will not Justify the Removal of Fiduciaries of an Estate