In this Will Contest probate proceeding, the nominated co-executors, the decedent’s nephew, and an attorney who had worked with the decedent, move for summary judgment dismissing the objections of the decedent’s niece, and admitting the propounded instrument to probate.
A New York Probate Lawyer said the decedent, a renowned real estate attorney, executed the propounded instrument in the hospital in September 2003, the date that he was discharged from the hospital with terminal colon cancer. He was readmitted to the hospital and died on the same month at 78 years of age. The decedent’s distributees are his brother and his niece. The niece, the sole objectant, alleges that the decedent lacked testamentary capacity and that the will was the product of undue influence and fraud.
The propounded instrument contains the following pre-residuary bequests: the decedent’s personal property to his brother and his spouse; his cooperative apartment in the Bronx and its contents to her niece; the sum of $100,000 from the a Credit amount to be shared by the five children of the co-executor; and the balance of the tax exempt amount to be shared equally by his brother, brother’s wife and their son and the latter’s three children. The residuary estate is bequeathed to a charitable trust. The propounded instrument specifically states that no provision has been made for the decedent’s niece, or for his sister-in-law, who are the daughter and the surviving spouse, respectively, of the decedent’s predeceased brother, because they “have been adequately provided for from other sources.” The estate is valued at $1,800,000 in the probate petition.