In re the Estate of Rath
Matter of the Estate of Henry Rath
Headnotes
Summary
Syllabus and headnotes are prepared by the reporter or publisher, not the court, and are not part of the opinion.
Opinion of the Court
Text extracted by OCR from a scanned original; check the original for exact wording.
Fowler, S.
The testator in his will nominated and appointed the German Society of the City of New York as his executor, and the question presented to the surrogate is whether the German Society of the City of New York is authorized by its charter to act as executor of an estate.
The German Society of the City of New York was incorporated by a special act of the legislature passed April 6, 1904. This act was amended in 1909, and it now provides that the society shall have power “ to perform duties of every description as may be committed to it by any person or persons whatsoever * * * or by a surrogate or by any courts of record. The authority to act as executor is derived from the will, and letters testamentary are merely the authentic evidence that the will has been proven and that permission has been given to the executor by the court having jurisdiction to exercise the powers conferred by the testator in his will. Hartnett v. Wandell, 60 N. Y. 346 ; Matter of Bergdorf, 206 id. 312. It seems to me that that provision of the act of incorporation which authorizes the society to perform any duty committed to it by any person whatever is sufficiently comprehensive to embrace the duty of executor committed to it by the testator, and this court, therefore, will issue to it letters testamentary under the will of the testator.
Decreed accordingly.
How later courts describe this case
No later court has written an explanatory parenthetical about this case yet.
Cited by 5 cases
View all citing references →Relies on it most ⓘ
Citing references are not a citator: they show that a later opinion cites this case, not whether it followed, distinguished, or overruled it. Check negative history before relying on this case.