Case ID: misc_58/html/0488-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Ketcham, S.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Matter of the Estate of Louisa Moran, Deceased.
    (Surrogate’s Court, Kings County,
    March, 1908.)
    Surrogates’ Courts — Procedure and review — Notice of motion and citation — Notice of motion and order to show cause — Not proper on application to direct payment of legacy, etc.
    An application to the Surrogate’s Court under section 2722 of the Code of Civil Procedure, to direct the payment of a legacy or distributive share in the estate of a decedent, is a special proceeding which must he commenced by petition and citation, and is not a motion in a pending proceeding which can be founded upon an affidavit and order to show cause.
    Motion for an advance on account of petitioner’s distributive share.
    John C. Judge, for petitioner.
    Jacob I. Bergen, for respondent.
   Ketcham, S.

Preliminary objection is -made that the application for an advance on account of the petitioner’s distributive share is brought on by notice of motion and not by citation.

This objection was not waived by the adjournment of the motion by consent. All the questions involved upon the motion were adjourned and were, therefore, all preserved.

The Code, in section 2722 et seq., contemplates that the application shall be commenced by petition; that a citation shall issue thereon and that the proceedings shall result in a decree. Section 2722 provides for an answer, for proof and for a decree for the dismissal of the petition in a certain event.

These provisions indicate a special proceeding and are not consistent with a motion in a proceeding already pending. Section 2550. The direction for payment, if contained in a decree, is given a precise meaning (§ 2552), may be docketed as a judgment (§ 2553) and may be enforced by execution (§ 2554). It is difficult to find any interpretation for an order for such payment or any means for its enforcement. See also §§ 2804, 2805 and 2806 as a precisely similar proceeding. These views have been applied. Matter of Lyon, 1 Misc. Rep. 447; Estate of Hitchler, 21 id. 417.

The motion is denied.

Motion denied.