Can a person claiming to be the decedent’s biological child out of wedlock obtain a court order directing DNA testing of the decedent’s acknowledged children, in order to verify her claim? In Matter of Estate of McGuire, 203...more
February 2022 Interest Rates for GRATs, Sales to Defective Grantor Trusts, Intra-Family Loans and Split-Interest Charitable Trusts....more
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced litigants to wrestle with the dilemma of waiting for a jury trial or moving forward more expeditiously by way of a bench trial. Recently, the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, and the...more
This newsletter is intended to keep readers informed about developments in probate and fiduciary litigation in Massachusetts and New York. Decedent’s New York Residence at Time of Death Does Not Create Jurisdiction in New...more
In the recent case Matter of Lee, New York County Surrogate’s Court granted a motion for summary determination that decedent’s father was disqualified as a distributee and beneficiary for failure to support decedent pursuant...more
When thinking of the Surrogate’s Court, jurisdiction over eviction proceedings does not normally come to mind. Yet, over the past 18 months, the Surrogates of New York and Bronx counties have found cause to order an eviction...more
Lose a Diamond Ring – Pay the Estate - Matter of Steinman, 2020 WL 2170757 (2nd Dep’t May 6, 2020) - A Floridian borrowed an expensive diamond ring from a New Yorker, while in New York State, and subsequently lost the...more
The Probate & Fiduciary Litigation Newsletter compiles recent Trust & Estate cases. Our lawyers are at the forefront of this area of the law, shaping how it is handled in the Probate and Family Court. ...more
Like business divorce, New York trusts and estates litigation (“T&E”) is a highly specialized niche of the law. T&E litigators have their own universe of substantive law, their own set of procedural rules – the Surrogate’s...more
In a recent decision in the Estate of Grunwald (NYLJ Jan. 28 2019, at 33 [Sur Ct, Richmond County]), Surrogate Titone aptly noted that “the concept of domicile is … very important in the Surrogate’s Court.”...more
When you want to sue to dissolve a business in New York on behalf of the estate of a deceased shareholder, to which court should you go: Supreme or Surrogate’s Court? ...more