Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New York

Destitute Intestate Beneficiary
My father died intestate in '94. Letter of Administration granted to mother (I did not appear to oppose). To date, she has not filed an accounting. I have reason to believe that she and my sibling have been playing shell games with a considerable corpus. I also believe that there is significant ''mattress money'' involved. I am destitute and cannot afford a lawyer, and even if I could I need to know whether the assets that I am entitled to, and when I can obtain them, justify the ensuing fight. I appeared pro se 5 years ago before the surrogate, requesting inter alia the accounting; he and his law clerk blew me off, protecting the unlawfulness of the octogenarian.(astounding the untouchable inveteracy of the corruption of the NY State courts! is this true in the federal arena also?)

What options do I have?

Asked on 5/28/05, 10:52 am

2 Answers from Attorneys

Walter LeVine Walter D. LeVine, Esq.

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Re: Destitute Intestate Beneficiary

You have several problems. First, it has been 11 years with no action taken. This exposes your claim to a defense of "laches" or sitting on your rights. Next, you have no ability to pay fees, which could run several thousand dollars to enforce an accounting, if you could get over the laches problem. Next, you have no information, that could be used to refute any information provided, so any accounting would probably be meaningless. While you have rights at law, in an intstate estate, you also face the exposure that the accounting would only cover assets the courts have control over. Thus, assets registered jointly with any family member would not be included in an intestate estate, nor would POD accounts, assets that had a designated beneficiary (like life insurance policies or retirement plans) or which had a built-in beneficiary designation (again, like retirement plans). A large estate could have minimal intestate ramifications, as only assets in the sole name of your father and not having some designated person named, would be invlved. Plus, in most states the first $50,000 or so automatically goes to a surviving spouse, and any balance is split among the children. So, even if you could overcome the procedural problems, it could cost more than what you would get. Finally, while you berate the court, you do not say what, if anything, was provided in response to your request for information. Most courts and judges are honest (not to say all are) and what was provided 5 years ago may have led to a determination there was no probate estate, or only a minimal estate in which you had no entitlement, for the reasons outlined above.

Answered on 6/03/05, 8:19 am

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