In re the Estate of Christie

167 Misc. 484, 4 N.Y.S.2d 484, 1938 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1590
CourtNew York Surrogate's Court
DecidedApril 29, 1938
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 167 Misc. 484 (In re the Estate of Christie) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Surrogate's Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re the Estate of Christie, 167 Misc. 484, 4 N.Y.S.2d 484, 1938 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1590 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1938).

Opinion

Wingate, S.

No rule of adjective law is of more constant application in Surrogates’ Courts than that contained in section 347 of the Civil Practice Act which renders an interested witness incompetent to testify in certain enumerated situations in respect of personal transactions with a decedent. In view of this fact, the widespread unfamiliarity of a large proportion of the bar with the proper interpretation and effect of this vitally important tool in probate litigation is rendered the more unfortunate. The present litigation furnishes an excellent example of this condition.

As disclosed by the record, the present decedent died on December 30, 1935. At the time of his death he was conducting a small florist business at 561 Fifth avenue, Brooklyn, which had been given him by his father, the present respondent, some ten years before. This business was apparently not particularly profitable, since at his death he owed at least seventeen different creditors on accounts dating back, in some instances, for well over two years, and the transcript of a savings bank account, which is the storm center of the present controversy, discloses that since August 15, 1927, only one deposit, of $3.25, had been made therein, whereas during the same period withdrawals totaling $2,325 are shown.

The total assets of the decedent, excluding the savings account, consisted of a balance in the Brooklyn Trust Company totaling $26.24, the fixtures of his florist shop and a used automobile which was sold shortly after his death for less than $100. •

Letters of administration were issued to the widow on January 13, 1936, and she attempted until the end of May following to continue the business with the help of the decedent’s father. After that date she endeavored to conduct it alone until the following November, when she discontinued it and released her tenancy of the store.

The decedent, the widow and the father had all resided together prior to the death, and the father and widow so continued for some months thereafter. Whereas the widow qualified as administratrix, it is wholly patent from the record, including her own testimony, that she delegated all duties in this connection to her father-in-law and that he collected and disbursed all assets and acted substantially as her agent in the continuance of the business.

Excluding from consideration the savings bank account, it is demonstrated that he received estate assets consisting of the $26.24 [486]*486Brooklyn Trust Company balance, $60 or $70 from the sale of the automobile, and $175 from the sale of the business fixtures, or a total of $271.24. According to his testimony, which was not controverted except by innuendo and attempts to cast suspicion upon his probity, the conduct of the business during the period in which he was connected therewith showed a net loss of $89.65, the total receipts amounting to $2,330.35 and the expenditures aggregating $2,420.

As against the demonstrated receipts of $271.24 he proved a considerable number of disbursements. In the view which the court has adopted of the composite demonstration, it becomes unnecessary to attempt to compute their precise aggregate. Definitely demonstrated were $500 for funeral expenses; $35 for fees to the attorney for the estate; $35 for oxygen administered to the decedent; $9.75 for druggist’s supplies; $85 for doctors and nurses; $75 for a grave, and $208.61 for debts owed by the decedent at the time of his death, giving a total of $947.36, or something less than four times the total of the demonstrated receipts from assets of the estate. The deficiency and many other alleged items. of expenditures, the validity of demonstration of which the court has not deemed it necessary to evaluate, were paid from the avails of the savings bank account to which reference has been made.

Since the respondent father-in-law, in the making of these expenditures, unquestionably acted as the authorized agent of the administratrix in a manner which would prevent her repudiation of his acts, the sole question of her right to any recovery in this proceeding for discovery resolves itself into one of whether or not the estate possessed any rights in the savings bank account.

The genisis of this account occurred on March 2, 1920, when the decedent opened account No. 615876 in his own name in the Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn. On May 26, 1922, prior to his intermarriage with the petitioner, the balance therein was transferred by him to a new account in the same institution, numbered 672914, which was opened in the name of Alexander Christie, in trust for Peter Christie. It so continued until a time subsequent to the death of the decedent.

Over the objection of the respondent, expressly interposed under section 347 of the Civil Practice Act, the administratrix-widow was permitted to testify respecting personal transactions with the decedent relating to this account. These objections were overruled by the learned referee, Emil N. Baar, Esq., and subsequent motions to strike out the testimony thus adduced were denied. On the faith thereof the referee has determined that the tentative [487]*487trust which was brought into being by the initial opening of the account was revoked, and has awarded its avails to the administratrix on the stated theory that the inhibition of section 347 affects merely testimony against the administratrix,” and that this was in her favor. This ruling is assigned as error, and the confirmation of the report is opposed upon this, as a primary ground.

The evaluation of this contention requires an analysis of the provisions of section 347 in so far as it is potentially pertinent to the present situation. In approaching its consideration it is of value to recall that the purpose of the enactment as presently existing and of its several predecessors, which run back through section 829 of the Code of Civil Procedure to section 399 of the old Code of Procedure, “ was to prevent a person who was or who might be assumed to be a partisan witness from giving his version of a transaction with another who was deceased and could not speak.” (Abbott v. Doughan, 204 N. Y. 223, 226.) The situations in which this condition may be present are obviously numerous, and some of the prevalent failure of comprehension of the scope of the enactment is conceivably due to the fact that its terms, by the broadness of their language, attempt to embrace all situations of this general variety, with the result that a casual reader, who discovers that certain of its terms do not embrace the facts of his individual situation, may be inclined to overlook other phraseology which brings him within its scope.

The most lucid exposition with which the court is familiar of the extent of applicability of the enactment is that contained in the latest edition of Dean Eichardson’s invaluable treatise on Evidence (Richardson on Evidence [5th ed.], §§ 462-470), in which the learned author analyzes its import from six points of view, namely, (1) in what proceedings the section is applicable; (2) who is disqualified; (3) as a witness for whom; (4) against whom; (5) concerning what; and (6) exceptions to the general rules. The answers to these questions are readily discoverable from the language of the act itself as authoritatively interpreted.

1. It is applicable “ upon the trial of an action or the hearing upon the merits of a special proceeding.” The latter term includes all proceedings in the Surrogate’s Court which have for their immediate object an affirmative determination affecting the rights of any party thereto. (Gen. Const.

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Bluebook (online)
167 Misc. 484, 4 N.Y.S.2d 484, 1938 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1590, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-estate-of-christie-nysurct-1938.