David L Lewis, a former partner in Lewis & Fiore retired from private practice upon being appointed a Judge of the New York State Court of Claims in June. Most recently David served as Counsel to the New York State Senate. Judge Lewis handled many...
Bronx Surrogate Nelida Malave-Gonzalez recently granted executors’ SCPA 2103 petition ordering decedent’s wife to vacate a co-op unit. The wife objected, challenging the contract’s validity and arguing she never consented to it. The Court held that the Executors were duty-bound to marshal the...
Manhattan Surrogate Nora Anderson was recently faced with a situation where a home health aide was one of the witnesses to a Will and was called upon to give testimony under SCPA 1404. The aide was unable to complete the examination due to some...
Decedent’s niece sought to probate a 2014 instrument, asking the Court to exclude handwritten alterations in to the will. The attorney draftsman’s affidavit stated decedent signed the instrument in her presence and it contained no handwritten material. Surrogate Malave-Gonzalez ruled that the handwritten notations were...
New York County Surrogate Nora Anderson recently denied a summary judgment motion on an objection based on undue influence. The proponent of the will started as decedent’s part-time health aide and became indispensable when decedent required continuous attention Decedent was accompanied by proponent on visits...
Surrogate Frank Labuda ruled that under SCPA §2110 the court had discretion to award attorney fees from estate funds to pay legal fees for service renderd by consel to the estate fiduciarybut would not allow payment of attorney fees from estate funds for future legal...
Suffolk County Surrogate John Czygier Jr. in a recent decision order the fees of Court appointed Guardian ad Litems to be paid personally by a Trustee who distributed trust funds not leaving enough money in the Trust to pay the court ordered fees...
Manhattan Surrogate Rita Mella decided to order a posthumous genetic marker test in the contested proceeding to compel the account of the estate’s administrator The court noted it must determine if ordering the test was practicable and reasonable and would impose undue hardship on decedent’s...
New York County Surrogate Rita Mella found a will signed by the decedent to be valid despite his advanced age and some visual impairments. Because execution was supervised by an attorney and there were contemporaneous affidavits of attesting witnesses reciting the facts of due execution...
