A resident of Nassau County died on 28 December 2010 and was survived by his sister, the petitioner; and two (2) brothers, the respondent and movant herein. The decedent’s last will and testament dated 23 May 2000 was offered for probate (estate litigation or estate administration or will contest) by the petitioner, who was named as the sole beneficiary of the decedent’s residuary estate, as well as the executrix. Preliminary letters testamentary were issued to the petitioner on 13 January 2011. The two (2) brothers of the decedent have filed their objections to the probate of the will.
The arguments presented before the court all boil down to a supermarket known as John’s Farms, which was run by the decedent and one of his brothers (“brother A”). The supermarket is comprised of three separate closely held corporations – (1) Corp. A, which operates the grocery and dry goods business within the decedent’s Farms, owned by the decedent and brother A as equal shareholders; (2) Corp. B, which sells fish and seafood at the decedent’s Farms, and was owned by the decedent and brother A as equal shareholders; and (3) Corp C, which operates a meat market within the decedent’s Farms, owned wholly by decedent.
The two (2) brothers of the decedent were ordered by the court to deliver and turn over to the petitioner the computer taken from the decedent’s home on the date of his death. While certain computer components were eventually turned over to the petitioner, the computer components turned over to the petitioner were not part of the home computer taken from the decedent’s home. A New York Probate Lawyers said that it appeared that the wrong computer had been turned over to the petitioner. Apparently, brother A had several computers used in the business which made it difficult to differentiate and offered to reimburse the estate for the value of the decedent’s computer equipment that was not delivered to the petitioner or her counsel in lieu of turning it over. The court has denied the same stating that the offer to pay the value of the computer is essentially pointless because of the fact that the reason the petitioner sought the decedent’s home computer was to obtain any relevant business records of the decedent thereon. Hence, the petitioner sought to clone all of the computers at the decedent’s Farms.