Case ID: nys_157/html/0676-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "COHALAN, S.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

In re COLBURN'S ESTATE.
    (Surrogate’s Court, New York County.
    December 17, 1915.)
    Wills ©=$15—Legacies to Institutions—Limitation on Amount—Computation.
    In computing the fund of which one-half is to be paid to institutions which fall within the inhibition of Decedent Estate Law (Laws 1860, c. 360) § 17, providing that no person having a husband, wife, child, or parent shall will to any institution organized for charitable, scientific, and certain other purposes more than one-half of his estate, the estate should be taken at its value when decedent died, and debts, but not administration expenses, be subtracted therefrom, and no income collected or accrued since decedent’s death should be paid to the corporate legatees.
    [Ed. Note.—For other cases, see Wills, Cent. Dig. § 36; Dec. Dig. <S=»15J
    /r—.TTnr other cases see same topic & KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests & Indexes
    In the matter of the estate of Richard Ti Colburn. Ordered that decree be settled on notice.
    Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, of New York City, for executors.
    Hedges, Ely & Frankel, of New York City, for Lida P. Colburn.
   COHALAN, S.

I am of opinion that the residuary bequests to the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Carnegie Institution of Washington are within the prohibition of section 17 of the Decedent Estate Law (chapter 360, Laws of 1860). The said bequests are valid to the extent of one-half of the value of the estate after the payment of debts. The amount which the above-named corporations may take is to be ascertained by computing the value of the estate (including the New Jersey real estate) as of the date of death of the testator, subtracting therefrom the decedent’s debts and dividing the remainder by two. Administration expenses do not enter into the calculation, and are not to be subtracted like the debts of the decedent. Estate of John H. Hughes, Surr. Decs., 1891, p. 171; Matter of Johnson, 76 Misc. Rep. 391, 137 N. Y. Supp. 166. The two corporate legatees should not receive any part of the income collected or accrued since the death of the decedent. Harris v. Am. Bible Soc’y, 4 Abb. Frac. (N. S.) 421.

Settle decree on notice.