ALBANY – Upsetting its own precedent, the state Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that surrogates have the authority to order payment of a fiduciary’s attorney from shares of individual estate beneficiaries, and not just from an estate as a whole.
The Court unanimously held that its ruling in Matter of Dillon, 28 NY2d 597 (1971), should be abandoned because it appears to run counter to the meaning of the Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act (SPCA) §2110. The 1966 statute provides for the payment of fiduciary’s legal fees “from the estate generally or from the funds in the hands of the fiduciary belonging to any legatee, divisee, distributee or person interested.”
