Surrogate John B. Riordan of Nassau County recently addressed an application to unseal adoption records for purposes of determining the heirs at law of a decedent who died intestate. Jaclene D’Agostino discusses the decision in this week’s blog entry.
Continue Reading Adoption Records Unsealed to Determine Distributee Status

Although void in some states, it is well settled that in terrorem or no contest clauses are enforceable under New York law. In a recent case, Surrogate Glen addressed the question of whether an in terrorem clause had been triggered by the petitioner contesting a New York instrument before a Florida court. This week’s entry, written by Robert Harper, discusses the decision.
Continue Reading Triggering In Terrorem Clauses With Out-Of-State Will And Trust Contests

This week, Ilene S. Cooper explains a recent case in which the Suffolk County Surrogate’s Court analyzed whether a beneficiary’s interest in the decedent’s residence qualified as a life estate, notwithstanding the explicit use of the term in the decedent’s Will.
Continue Reading Court Examines Beneficiary’s Right to Sell Real Property

This week’s entry, written by Jaclene D’Agostino, discusses a recent New York County Supreme Court decision dismissing a widow’s legal malpractice claim against her husband’s estate planning attorneys. The rationale: lack of privity, despite the fact that the defendant attorneys also represented the widow in her own estate plans, and jointly with her husband in other matters.
Continue Reading Widow Barred from Bringing Legal Malpractice Action against Husband’s Estate Planning Attorneys

Although adoption records generally remain sealed except for applications in connection with medical purposes, courts will occasionally allow such records to be unsealed for other reasons. This week’s entry discusses one of the rare cases in which an application was granted absent any medical objective.
Continue Reading Unsealing Adoption Records

This week’s entry discusses a recent decision from the Southern District of New York in which the plaintiff asserted he was the son of John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, and sought to compel distributions from the late president’s testamentary trust. Especially relevant to the trusts and estates litigator is the discussion of the probate exception to federal diversity jurisdiction.
Continue Reading Ask not what your Trustees can do for you…