Grandchildren's Rights In Grandmother's Estate When A Parent Predeceases The Grandmother Richard A. Whitney
Q.
My Grandmother died almost six months ago (NY Resident). After her passing my aunt told me that my grandmother had no will but had told her that she had wanted to leave everything to her. My father passed away several years before my grandmother.
I have since learned that within NY State law it would appear that my Father's "share" of my Grandmother's estate should have been passed along to me.
Since I believe that most of my Grandmother's estate has been utilized by my aunt, and significant time has passed, I wonder if there is a statute of limitations on contesting the disbursement of the estate and what recourse I may have to recover anything that should have been distributed my way.
-- Anonymous
A.
Where there is no will, a deceased person's estate is distributed under the law of intestacy. That law provides that where a grandparent is survived by one or more children and grandchildren, the estate is divided among the living children and living grandchildren whose parent predeceased the grandmother. In your case, your aunt gets half of the estate and you (and any siblings) get the other half.
Six months is not a significant period of time for an estate to be kept open. Many estates last for years.
You can be assured that whatever the statute of limitations is for objecting to how an estate has been distributed, any action you take now to get your share of your grandmother's estate is not too late. You can enforce your right to a share of the estate by asking the Surrogate's Court to appoint you as administrator of the estate and then asking the Surrogate's Court to order your aunt to prepare and file an account of her actions vies-a-vi the estate. If as a result of these actions it appears that your aunt did not give you your rightful share of the estate, the Surrogate's Court can order your aunt to see to it that you receive your share. The Court can also impose fines on your aunt for acting improperly.
You would be well advised to hire a lawyer to handle these legal proceedings.
