Articles Posted in Manhattan

A New York Probate Lawyer said the Incapacitated Person is 95 years of age, having been born on December 8, 1914. On March 1, 2004, he transferred his fee ownership interest in the Glen Head, New York real property in which he resided to his daughter, while retaining a life estate in same. Based upon the date of the transfer, this gift is beyond any applicable look-back period for purposes of determining Medicaid eligibility pursuant to the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.

A New York Will Lawyer said the parties concede that it was the intention of the Incapacitated Person, with the consent of two of his grandsons (as heirs-at-law of the daughter), for the Incapacitated Person to remain in the real property for the balance of his lifetime. However, when his funds dwindled, his needs increased, and a third grandchild (who had declared bankruptcy) declined to authorize a reverse mortgage on such real property, the Guardians were left with no other option but to permanently relocate the Incapacitated Person to a skilled nursing facility. Thankfully, he has acclimated well despite his advanced age and severe dementia.

Following the relocation of the Incapacitated Person, the Guardian for the Property Management and the Co-Executors of the Estate of the daughter entered into a Contract of Sale to extinguish the life estate interest of the Incapacitated Person and to sell the real property to third parties for the price of $520,000.00. Based on the written appraisals of a New York State Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser, spanning a period of NINE (9) MONTHS, the selling price is approximately $20,000.00 above the appraised market value.

A New York Probate Lawyer said a woman died in Greece and her premises was transferred into a trust, which is irrevocable. The trust document, which was in English, was prepared by the woman’s attorney. The said attorney was also named as the trustee of the trust. A deed transferring the estate into the trust was recorded in the county clerk’s office.

A New York Will Lawyer said the proposed last will prepared by the woman’s attorney has been offered to probate in the court. Sources revealed that the instrument donates the deceased woman’s residuary estate to one of the organization.

Afterward, Manhattan Probate Lawyers said the deceased woman’s sister initiated a proceeding in the Greek court with respect to an unsigned instrument. The opponents argue that the instrument has merely been published, which is of no effect since the deceased woman was a New York resident and any testamentary document can only be proved valid by the state court. The woman’s sister’s papers, on the other hand, stated that the instrument had been offered to probate in the Greek court.

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In this Will Contest case, a motion by the executor for an order consenting to a transfer to this court of an action currently is pending in Supreme Court, New York County. Respondent argues that this court lacks subject matter jurisdiction of the dispute and that Nassau County is not the proper venue for the case.

A New York Probate Lawyer said that the decedent died in December 1993. The court admitted his Last Will and Testament to probate and issued letters testamentary to petitioner thereafter. Petitioner subsequently filed an accounting and a supplemental accounting, respectively, with this court. At the closing date of the latter, the estate held interests in real estate partnerships, all controlled by general partner. At a special meeting of the shareholders, decedent issued sixty shares of stock each to petitioner and respondent, with petitioner holding her shares in trust for respondent, and with respondent holding his stocks in trust for decedent, an arrangement referred to as a “tontine” trust. Evidenced in the meeting’s minutes is “the intention that the sole possession and ownership of the stock remain within the three parties and that the survivor of the three have sole possession of all the outstanding and issued stock of the corporation.” Also, new stock certificates would be issued when one of the parties died, and these would be evenly split and distributed to the remaining parties, with each holding his share in trust for the other. Petitioner disputes the existence of this arrangement, and respondent’s pending Supreme Court case pertains to petitioner’s actions as executrix relating to decedent’s sixty shares.

A New York Will Lawyer said the Surrogate Court’s subject matter jurisdiction has steadily expanded throughout the twentieth century. The Court of Appeals held in a case involving two living parties (one being a fiduciary of a decedent’s estate) and an eviction proceeding, that, “for the Surrogate’s Court to decline jurisdiction, it should be abundantly clear that the matter in controversy in no way affects the affairs of a decedent or the administration of his estate”.

This is an application by the surviving spouse of the decedent for an advance payment of her elective share and for an order providing for immediate possession of certain real estate property. By stipulation, the parties provided for payment of $2,500 monthly to the spouse for twelve months, subject to the outcome of a pending appeal of an order regarding her elective share. The question of possession of the Florida property and the additional issue concerning disclosure of the petitioner’s address were submitted for decision.

A New York Probate Lawyer said the man died, survived by his wife and three adult children by a prior marriage. The nominated executor petitioned for probate of an instrument and a codicil. The codicil provides in part that being that the deceased man’s lovely wife likes so very much his home in Florida, and which they both enjoyed so very much together, that she is hereby given at his direction, the right and privilege to live in that house as long as she shall live, or unless she shall marry again. Being that he has been most generous to her, the rights and privilege shall be withdrawn and abrogated if she should make a will contest with its several codicils. These several added codicils are all for her benefit.

A New York Will Lawyer said the spouse filed objections to probate of both the will and codicil. She subsequently filed amended objections along with a cross-petition for probate of an alleged codicil, in the event that the prior documents were admitted to probate. The instrument granted a life estate to the spouse without the inclusion of an in terrorem clause and without any limitation concerning remarriage.

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A New York Probate Lawyer said in an action transferred to the court from Supreme Court, Nassau County, one of several defendants, a Home Loan corporation, moves the court for an order dismissing the complaint against it. Plaintiffs opposed such motion and cross-move for summary judgment dismissing the answer, or, in the alternative, striking its fourth and seventh affirmative defenses.

A New York Will Lawyer said that this action emanates from a foreclosure proceeding involving property located at Hempstead, New York. That property was owned by decedent, who died intestate in July 1986. Her brother administered her estate as voluntary administrator pursuant to SCPA Article 13. It appears, although it is not entirely clear, that he was the sole distributee and that the subject property vested in him immediately upon his sister’s death.

Manhattan Probate Lawyers said the distribute brother then died testate in June 1994. Herein petitioner was appointed the voluntary administrator of the brother’s estate. The court’s file contains original will which devises and bequeaths all of his property to his cousin. The latter died in August 2000. There was no deed executed from the estate of the decedent sister to the brother, nor was there a deed from the estate of the brother to the petitioner. Although the brother’s original will was filed in the court by petitioner incident to the voluntary administration of the estate of the brother, the will was never offered for, or admitted to, probate. The plaintiffs are the non-marital children of the petitioner, the administrators of his estate, and claim to be his only distributees.

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A New York Probate Lawyer said that, the decree denying probate to the propounded instrument reserved for determination by supplemental decree all applications for costs, allowances, and fees. The attorney for petitioner who claims to be the sole statutory distributee of the decedent, asks the court to fix his reasonable compensation and costs and to direct payment from the general estate. The attorney did not proceed in the manner required by section 231-a, Surrogate’s Court Act, and hence his application must be based upon section 278. He is not entitled to costs or an allowance under that section. Even if he had proceeded under section 231-a, he would not be entitled to have his fee paid out of the general estate for he rendered no services of benefit to the estate. His services were solely for the benefit of his individual client.

A New York Will Lawyer said that, the position of the client was, as the attorney states, as anomalous one. A 1918 will has been admitted to probate in British Honduras ‘until a later Will be found’. A 1955 instrument was offered for probate here as a lost will. It was to the interest of the alleged distributee that the 1955 instrument be proved to have been duly executed (thus revoking the 1918 will), but that it be denied probate on the ground that it was not in existence at the time of the decedent’s death. The attorney was thus partly on one side in the contested probate proceeding and partly on the other side. He accordingly filed no pleading and took no active part in the contest. Before submission of the case to the jury he made motions appropriate to his client’s interests. He was otherwise quiescent, hopeful that the contending factions would destroy each other. The verdict of the jury was against the proponent on the question of the making of the will.

A Manhattan Probate Lawyers said that, the attorney’s present contention that he represents a party who has succeeded in the contest is contrary to the record herein. He attempted to serve only his own client’s interests, he rendered no services of benefit to the estate and he was not successful insofar as his client’s cause is concerned. There is no basis for allowing him costs, compensation or allowance out of this estate. The attorney for the proponent in the probate proceeding request an allowance for their services. In prohibiting an award of costs to an unsuccessful contestant in a probate proceeding, section 278 explicitly excepts from that prohibition one ‘named as an executor in a paper propounded by him in good faith’, and it further affirmatively provides that ‘where a person named as the executor in a will propounds the will for probate, such person so named as executor may, whether successful or not, in the discretion of the surrogate, be awarded costs and all necessary disbursements made by him and all expenses incurred in the attempt to sustain the will.’

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